Maoist to make bid to bring all parties on board to form govt

Kathmandu: Nepal's Maoist party led by Prachanda today decided to initiate discussions and dialogue with all political parties, including the Madhesis, having representation in the Parliament to form a national consensus government.

The central committee meeting of the CPN-Maoist Centre took a decision to initiate dialogue with all political parties including the agitating Madhesi parties and call them to join the national consensus government being formed under the leadership of Maoist chairman Prachanda, according to the party sources.

After President Bidya Bhandari called political parties to form a national consensus government within one-week time as per the provision of the constitution the largest party in the Parliament Nepali Congress and the Maoists yesterday agreed to take initiatives to form a national consensus government.

The two parties have also agreed to form a new government under the leadership of chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal Puspha Kamal Dahal who is also known as Prachanda.

Party spokesperson Pampha Bhushal said that her party will take an initiative to accommodate almost all the political parties having representation in the Parliament in the new cabinet to be formed under the leadership of Prachanda.

"As we have realised the need for addressing the concerns of the Madhesis (largely of Indian-origin), Tharu communities and other ethnic minorities while implementing the constitution, we have decided to hold talks with these political parties as well and make effort to ensure their participation in the new government," Bhushal said.

The deadline issued by Bhandari to form a consensus government is till Monday.

If no consensus could be reached among the parties on the formation of a government then the process of forming a majority government will start from Tuesday.

As political observers here don't see the possibility of forming a consensus government within the deadline, the formation of a majority government might take at least one more week.
Nepal plunged into a political turmoil after Prime Minister K P Oli resigned just before a no-confidence vote.

Oli tendered his resignation after two key ruling alliance partners -- Madhesi People's Rights Forum-Democratic and Rastriya Prajatantra Party -- decided to support the no-confidence motion tabled against him by the Nepali Congress (NC) and the CPN-Maoist Centre led by Prachanda in the 596-member Parliament.