Twenty days remain for the constitution drafting deadline and the leaders have yet to find much touted ‘consensus’ on thorny issues. The five point deal signed last week had paved way for the NC and CPN-UML’s participation in the present government. It was hoped that having major parties in the government would help create an environment of trust in the statute drafting, but UML’s refusal to join the government has once again dampened hopes.
The deadline given to the parties to seek agreement on remaining issues expired on Sunday, but the meeting of the top three parties on Monday morning decided to ask for two more days to forge an agreement. The dispute resolution sub-committee meeting underway in Singhadurbar is trying to narrow the differences on crucial issues of governance and federalism. It is expected that the Constitutional Committee meeting called this afternoon will ask the parties to clear their position ahead of Tuesday's CA meeting.
Meanwhile, crucial developments are taking place behind the scene within Nepal’s oldest party, the Nepali Congress. After signs of a clear rift among NC lawmakers surfaced last week, some leaders in the party are trying to convince president Sushil Koirala to take over party leadership inside the CA, an NC lawmaker told Nepali Times. “The party lacks strong leadership in the house and we hope his leadership will help unite the party inside and outside the CA.”
Last week, a group of NC leaders under the present parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Poudel had proposed to bring in a ‘no confidence’ motion against Bhattarai's government but majority of NC lawmakers refused to support it. Instead, the party decided to join the Maoist led government under party General Secretary Krishna Sitaula to complete the statute drafting before May 27.