A meeting of the standing committee members of the UCPN (Maoist) close to the establishment faction Thursday decided to remain in power until new constitution is promulgated. The meeting held at party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal's residence in Lazimpat also asked Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai not to tender resignation now.

The meeting stressed on the need for promulgating constitution by May 27 deadline if possible and decided not to quit the government until the constitution is promulgated. The Maoist party's decision comes at a time when Nepali Congress and CPN-UML are demanding PM's resignation to pave the way for national consensus government before promulgating new constitution within the stipulated time.

The meeting also decided to keep its policy unchanged regarding the agendas of indigenous nationalities, Muslims, Madheshis, women and marginalised communities.

The NC and UML have beening accusing the Maoist party of backtracking from five point agreement. In the five-point agreement, four parties had agreed to form national unity government under Baburam Bhattarai's leadership and to handover the government leadership to the NC before promulgating new constitution by May 27.

However, rift widened again between the parties after the government decided to extend the term of the Constituent Assembly. Though the government has already tabled constitution amendment bill in the parliament to pave the way for Constituent Assembly's term extension, the NC and UML have been saying the statute must be drafted by May 27. nepalnews.com