KATHMANDU, FEB 24 - With less than 100 days to go for the deadline to draft the constitution, an internal taskforce formed by the ruling CPN-UML on Tuesday proposed a national consensus government. The taskforce also proposed that the party should be open for a Maoist-led government, provided the main opposition meets “certain conditions.”

The party’s main conditions, among others, are that the UCPN (Maoist) must vacate the cantonments and return all seized properties before May 28. A seven-member taskforce headed by Standing Committee Member Bharat Mohan Adhikari put forth the proposal to this effect at Tuesday’s Central Committee meeting at the party headquarters in Balkhu.

“If the Maoists and other parties are committed to meeting the conditions, we are ready to discuss any agenda, including the change of guard,” said Prakash Jwala, a taskforce member.

“However, we have proposed that a UML-led government should be our first priority.” The party is yet to approve the document as there are still some differences to sort out.

In line with Adhikari’s proposal, seven UML CC members—Yogesh Bhattarai, Ghanshyam Bhusal, Rajendra Gautam, Dal Bahadur Rana, Bijaya Paudel, Thakur Gaire and Arun Nepal—have registered a separate proposal, demanding a national consensus government “at any cost”, even if that requires putting the Maoists as the “leader of the new power equation.”

However, some taskforce members have expressed their reluctance to let the Maoists lead the new government, though they support the proposal for a national unity government.

Adhikari, Pradeep Gyawali, Bhim Rawal and Bishnu Rimal stood for the continuation of the incumbent government, while pro-establishment Prakash Jwala, Mukunda Neupane and Urmila Aryal insisted that the party take a Maoist-led government as one of the alternatives.

Posted on: 2010-02-24 08:54

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