The widening rift between Nepali Congress (NC) and the Maoists has marred the efforts of seven parties to end the deadlock.
The seven party meeting held in Baluwatar, Sunday, ended inconclusively, after NC’s demand for including a member of opposition in the make-up of security council was turned down by the Maoists.
No new date for the next meeting has been fixed.
After the Maoists and Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) came closer on power-sharing agreeing to back each other’s candidate for president and prime minister, respectively, NC said that it will stay in opposition.
Clarifying the point where the seven party meeting has reached, UML general secretary Jhal Nath Khanal said that they had reached almost an agreement on issues related with implementation of peace agreement; and the package on constitution amendment.
“However, the issue of power division has not yet been discussed in the seven party meeting. What happened was that the Maoists – through various means – made it clear that NC candidate was not acceptable for president. Then, in our meeting with Maoists, we told them that if NC was not acceptable, then UML was ready to take up the responsibility. But this thing has not yet been finalised,” Khanal told Nepal FM.
Khanal said that UML would work hard to resume the seven party meeting at the soonest. nepalnews.com sd Jun 23 08
