Four-party meet makes no headway; Dahal hopes for consensus by Friday

The meeting of the major four political forces held on Thursday as part of their attempts to seek possible way out of the current political impasse could not arrive at any conclusion.

The meeting of the UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, CPN (UML) and Madhesi Front held at the residence of UML leader Krishna Lal Maharjan in Balkumari ended inclusively after no negotiating party showed readiness to compromise on their stance on the key issues- formation of consensus government, fresh Constituent Assembly (CA) polls and fiscal budget.

Emerging from the meeting, Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal said the parties were likely to reach an understating in the meeting scheduled for Friday.

He claimed that they were close to a consensus on the election. “Our discussions dwelt on date of polls, the number of the members in the Assembly, process of Interim Constituent amendment and unity government," he added, "We hope to reach conclusion on these issues by tomorrow.”

However, UML chairman Jhala Nath Khanal said that there were slim chances of forging consensus on Friday as the differences among the parties still exist.

Though the leaders of all four parties have been giving public statements in favour of fresh election, confusion still persists on the procedure of holding election. nepalnews.com