Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal on Sunday challenged the Unified CPN (Maoist) to topple the current government he leads by "garnering the majority support" in the parliament.

The embattled prime minister's remarks comes on the day of the start of the Maoists' planned agitation to pressure the government into fulfilling their demands to make way for a "national consensus government" by agreeing on what they call civilian supremacy  issues.

Speaking at a program organized by his party CPN-UML in Banepa, PM Nepal renewed his call to the Maoists to forgo its plan to organise nationwide agitation and come to the negotiating table to find a way out of the prevailing political deadlock.

He said that the Maoists need to understand that it is simply meaningless to go on "crying and shouting" in the streets by organizing various protest programmes and urged them to come to an understanding.

Soon after the hastily concluded programme, PM Nepal headed back to Kathmandu to engage in efforts to make the Maoists abandon their agitation plans and save his government.

Meanwhile, speaking at the opening session of the Mahasamiti meeting of Nepali Congress today, NC President Girija Prasad Koirala also said that he would personally meet Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal today and try to make him agree to withdraw his party's nationwide protest programmes.

On the eve of the Maoist planned agitation on Saturday also, PM Nepal had called on the Maoists to withdraw their plans to organise nationwide agitation and forge consensus with other political parties to bail the country out of the current impasse. "This is not a season to organise protests. It is time to forge consensus," he said, "I urge the Maoists to withdraw their agitation."

The same day, CPN-UML leader K.P Oli urged the Maoists to withdraw their protest programmes and join the government.

The senior UML leader, who is otherwise known for his scathing criticism and blistering verbal attacks against the Maoists, toned down his anti-Maoist rhetoric to a great level and said that if the Maoist stop their agitation then "the party can be given a respectable position in the current government".

Meanwhile, notwithstanding the calls to withdraw its protest programmes, Unified CPN (Maoist) is all set to go ahead with its planned nation-wide agitation programme from today to uphold what the party says "civilian supremacy".

As per their pre-announced protest programme, the Maoists will take out Masal Julus or "torch rallies" from five different locations of the capital and have said that the protests will be huge.

There will be participation of senior Maoist leaders, central leaders and party activists in the torch rallies. The activists of the party's sister organisations have also been requested to take part in the demonstration.

Tomorrow on November 2, the Maoists have plans to picket Village Development Committees and municipalities all across the country for a whole day and hold mass public meeting and assemblies.

Similarly, in the days ahead, the Maoists have plans to halt works in the District Administration Offices (DAOs) nationwide, announce various places as autonomous provinces, impose blockades in Kathmandu for two days from November 10 during which the Maoists activists will obstruct free movement at all the entry points of Kathmandu including the Tribhuvan International Airport.

However, the Joint People's Struggle Committee which Maoists have formed to better manage their nationwide agitation has said they will not impose Kathmandu valley shutdown.

Furthermore, the Maoists said hundreds of thousand of people will picket Singha Durbar, the seat of the government, on November 12 and 13 and will "prevent" the government to carry out normal duties. nepalnews.com

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