By IANS
Kathmandu : Though Nepal’s ruling parties kicked off their joint campaign for the crucial April election in the volatile Terai Saturday despite violent protests by ethnic groups, dissidents paralysed central and eastern parts of the plain Sunday, embarking on a movement to thwart the polls.
The United Madhesi Front, a new regional alliance of two Terai organisations, enforced an indefinite shutdown in Dhanusha and Mahottari districts.
The temple town of Janakpur in Dhanusha had remained on high alert Saturday as the Front and other Terai dissidents joined forces to wreck the joint poll campaign of the seven ruling parties Saturday.
Despite a tight security cordon around the meeting venue and the deployment of 4,000 security personnel, protesters clashed with the parties and policemen throughout the day, resulting in over 60 being injured.
The Front, a partnership between the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, one of the most powerful groups in the Terai, and the Sadbhavana Party, floated last year by dissident former minister Rajendra Mahato, began a transport strike in the plains from Sunday.
As the countdown to the April 10 constituent assembly election began, Terai groups have been trying to forge an alliance to coerce the government into conceding their demands before the polls.
The Front has the tacit support of another new regional party, the Terai Madhes Loktantrik Party (TMLP) founded last month by aggrieved former ministers and lawmakers, and several armed groups, including two of former Maoists.
The TMLP Friday rejected the call by the Girija Prasad Koirala government to begin negotiations.
The major demands of the agitating outfits include an autonomous Madhes region in the plains, proportional representation for plains people in security forces and bureaucracy, more seats in the Terai for the upcoming election and compensation to the families of those killed in the plains during the Madhes movement.
It would be extremely difficult for the government to hold elections in Terai without pacifying the dissidents.
In June 2007, the Koirala government was unable to hold the election due to the violence and bloodshed in the plains.