Koirala to meet opposition parties to resolve political crisis

Seeking to resolve the lingering political crisis in Nepal, Prime Minister Sushil Koirala has initiated talks with UCPN-Maoist Chairman Prachanda, Madhesi leaders and opposition parties.
Koirala, who is also the president of Nepali Congress, will hold bilateral, trilateral and multilateral talks with the parties in order to include them in the constitution drafting process, Nepali Congress Spokesperson Dilendra Prasad Badu told reporters today.
"Prime Minister has already initiated dialogue. He held conversation with the top leaders (of opposition parties) over telephone since yesterday," he said, adding that Koirala would be holding one-to-one meeting with them from tomorrow.
Protesting the formation of Proposal Committee to deal with the disputed issues of new constitution, the opposition parties had announced to boycott the Constituent Assembly (CA) process.

The opposition leaders had said they would not sit for talks with the government unless it withdraws the committee.
The UCPN-Maoist led opposition alliance is demanding forging consensus before moving ahead with the process to draft the constitution, whereas the ruling party alliance has started the process of drafting the statute through majority votes.

Meanwhile, ruling parties and their allies appealed to the opposition parties to take part in the Proposal Committee and come to the negotiation table in order to find solution to their difference.
Nepal has been facing a constitutional crisis for the last six years after the first Constituent Assembly was dissolved without promulgating the Constitution in 2012.

Opposition parties have been demanding ethnic identity- based federal structure in the Constitution which was supposed to be promulgated last week but the deadline could not be met.
Nepali Congress and CPN-UML command more than two-thirds majority in the 601-member Constituent Assembly.