NC initiates move on coalition govt., Constitution writing

The parliamentary committee of the Nepali Congress (NC) has decided to hold talks with other parties to form a consensus government and Constitution-drafting, the party said on Friday.

“The Nepali Congress wants to move ahead on the issue of running the government and Constitution-writing by having consensus and cooperation with all political parties,” said a statement by the largest party in the new Constituent Assembly (CA) after its parliamentary committee meeting in the capital. “The party is committed to writing the new constitution within a year.”

The NC’s official stance to hold talks with “all political parties” comes a day after the second largest party and NC’s functional partner in the last assembly, CPN-UML, officially demanded re-election of President and Vice-President. The NC is averse to such a proposition. Despite public bickering on the question of the President’s tenure, some of the leaders from the two parties are still hopeful of repeating the partnership they had during the last CA.

Meanwhile, NC got another shot in its arm with Bijay Gachchhadar of the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (Democratic) expressing its support to the NC. Mr. Gachchhadar called on NC president Sushi Koirala and said his party, which has 14 seats, would support an NC-led government. Mr. Gachchhadar also supported the NC stance on the President and the Vice-President.

Pro-monarchy RPP (Nepal) Chairman Kamal Thapa has said that his party would show flexibility on the question of party’s core agenda, local media reported on Friday. “We are aware that our agenda cannot be implemented cent per cent in the course of forging compromise and consensus with other political parties while drafting a democratic Constitution,” Mr. Thapa said at an interaction in the capital. The RPP (Nepal), with 24 seats, is the fourth largest party after NC, UML and the UCPN (Maoist). It sought vote on the planks of constitutional monarchy and return to Hindu state.

The party won all its seats under the proportional representation system. All of its candidates lost under the direct election.