Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal resigned on Sunday evening, in accordance with the five-point agreement signed among the top political parties in May. Mr. Khanal submitted the resignation to the President, and is expected to explain his position in Parliament on Monday. He was in office for a little more than seven months.
In early August, he had declared that he would resign by August 13 if there was no ‘concrete progress' in the peace process, specifically the integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants. Over the past two weeks, despite repeated meetings among the Premier, Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda' and the opposition Nepali congress, there was little headway in peace negotiations.
On Sunday, Mr. Khanal made a last ditch effort at a meeting of all the major parties to forge consensus in vain. The NC and the Madhesi parties asked the Prime Minister to resign immediately.
There was increased pressure on Mr. Khanal to quit from leaders of his own party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), who were upset with him for swearing in new Maoist Ministers against the party directive.
At a central committee meeting of the party on Sunday afternoon, the former Prime Minister Madhav Nepal, senior leader K P Oli and even close aides of Mr. Khanal asked him to put in his papers.
Both the NC and the Maoists have claimed leadership of the next government. Within the NC, the former Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, has been working to muster support to be the party's official candidate, challenging parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Poudel.
The Maoists have proposed Dr. Baburam Bhattarai as their candidate to head a national unity government, but this may not apply if a majority government is formed.
Mr. Khanal's resignation comes two weeks before the term of the Constituent Assembly expires on August 31. The parties have been unable to make progress on ‘completing the fundamental tasks of the peace progress' and preparing a draft constitution as per the five point agreement.
