Home India Politics Yechury meets Nepal president in bid to end stalemate

Yechury meets Nepal president in bid to end stalemate

By IANS,

Kathmandu: Concerned at the protracted political stalemate in Nepal, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has sent its politburo member Sitaram Yechury to hold dialogue with Nepal’s key politicians. Yechury Monday met Nepal President Ram Baran Yadav.

Yechury, who arrived in Kathmandu on a three-day visit Sunday, met Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and Maoist foreign affairs chief Krishna Bahadur Mahara Sunday.

The CPI-M leader is reportedly pledging his party’s help for the formation of a national government in Nepal which will also include the former Maoist guerrillas, and the integration of the Maoists’ People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into society.

Though Nepal is scheduled to promulgate a new constitution by May 28, there is growing doubt about the parties’ ability or willingness to meet the deadline.

Though the constitutional committee, that is to draft the new statute, was to have begun work on the first draft last month and ended it by March 5, it is clear the deadline will not be met.

Of the 11 parliamentary committees that were to have submitted their reports to provide the base for the draft, only one was able to meet the Feb 4 deadline.

On Monday, Maoist supremo Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda held a training of PLA combatants in a cantonment in southern Nepal, where he reportedly told them to prepare for a fresh armed revolt if the May 28 deadline failed.