By IRNA,
New Delhi : Nepal’s Maoist party on Thursday reached out to other political parties to meet a July 7 presidential deadline to form a national government under its leadership, a day after the embattled prime minister quit following months of protests by the former rebels.
Political parties on Thursday began consultations to meet the July 7 deadline set by President Ram Baran Yadav to recommend the name of a new Prime Minister to form a consensus government as per the constitutional provision, following the resignation of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal on Wednesday.
Main opposition Unified CPN-Maoist, the largest party in the 601-member Constituent Assembly with nearly 40 percent seats, on Thursday set up a three-member committee led by party supremo Prachanda to form a national consensus government under its leadership, PTI reported.
The panel includes hardline leader Mohan Vaidya “Kiran” and vice chairman Baburam Bhattarai.
The Maoists standing committee on Thursday decided to take initiatives to form a new government under the party’s leadership.
Vaidya claimed that a national consensus government should be formed under the leadership of the party to complete the peace process and frame a new constitution.
Senior leaders in the Nepali Congress, the second largest party in the House, also staked its claim to lead a new government.
The Maoist party and the CPN-UML, which is heading the caretaker 22-party coalition, separately held talks to discuss developments and strategy to form a new government.
The Presidential office on Thursday asked the political parties to suggest a name for post of the Prime Minister based on consensus by July 7.
If the parties fail to name a Prime Ministerial candidate of consensus by July 7 then as per the provision of the constitution the process will start to form a majority government, a top presidential aide said.
The President accepted the resignation of Nepal on Wednesday and asked him to continue as the caretaker Prime Minister until a new government is formed.
Nepal tendered his resignation after 13 months of intense pressure from the Maoists to step down.
It had announced its decision to block the budget session of the Parliament scheduled to be held on July 5 if he did not quit.