UCPN (Maoist) chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Thursday assured that the country will be federated on the basis of ethnicity and identity, adding that 14 ethnic identity-based federal states is his party’s “bottom line” and there will be no compromise on it.

Receiving a memorandum submitted by Janjati lawmakers and representatives of Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities at his residence in Lazimpat this morning, Dahal said his party would never compromise on its original stance of ethnic based federalism while restructuring the state and informed that the political parties are close to forging a consensus on the issue while holding crucial discussion on disputed issues related to constitution drafting.

He also urged indigenous nationalities to come up with additional programs to exert pressure on the political parties to take their concerns of identity-based federalism into account while promulgating a new constitution. nepalnews.com