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Anxiety about April
The month of February, 2008 was full of miseries across the country, especially the capital, due to a lengthy agitation in Madhes which disrupted supply of essential commodities, including petroleum products. The loadshedding due to the lean season in hydropower generation made the situation further worse.
 However, after a deal was struck on February 28 between the government and the agitating groups of terai, the 16-day Terai agitation was called off. On March 1, the government finalized another deal with another agitating group, Federal Republic National Front. These two deals removed the major hurdles of the April elections to the Constituent Assembly. The latest news is that the first part of the election process – filing of nomination – has concluded peacefully and the political parties have made their election manifestos public.
The possibility of electoral alliance between the Maoists and UML seems very bleak till now thus benefiting the Nepali Congress. Though Nepali Congress itself seems to be in some difficulties as a number of Madhesi leaders have deserted the party, the Congress leaders say the effect of desertion will be marginal.
While the preparations for the election to the CA are going on and the candidates are busy canvassing for support, the people have started thinking also about the scenario after the elections are concluded. The analysts say the days after the polls are very challenging. The jumbo CA (601 member strong) is likely to be an unwieldy body to steer through the process of constitution drafting. Another source of the anxiety is the possible courses of action from the Maoists in both cases of their win and defeat in the election. The election manifesto of the party has not helped clear the confusion. Yet another source of anxiety is related with the points of the agreement signed between the government and the Terai groups. Some analysts have expressed dissatisfaction that the representation of Terai in the CA is going to be disproportionately high which may fuel dissatisfaction among other groups.
One interesting development during the course of filing the nominations for the CA election was the nomination of businessmen by the parties under the proportional representation system.
Other major events and developments during late February and early march were:
Feb 26: Industrialist Shashi Kant Agrawal shot at. Business community condemned the government for poor law and order situation.
Feb 28: Police nabbed a big gang involved in abducting various high level people and extorting ransom.
March 2: The government decided to grant license for 302 MW Arun III hydropower project to Indian government-owned company Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam, with a condition that the government gets 88 MW power from the project free of cost.
March 3: Bijaya Gacchedar, Sharat Singh Bhandari and some other NC leaders quit the party expressing dissatisfaction over the distribution of the party tickets for the CA election. They joined Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, one of the major groups that agitated in the Terai forcing the government to agree to their demands.
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