A top Chinese leader today asked all political parties in Nepal, including the sulking Maoists, to forge consensus to draft a new constitution to resolve the ongoing political crisis in the country.
Ai Ping, the vice-minister of the International Department of Communist Party of China (CPC), held separate meetings with Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala, UCPN-Maoist chief Prachanda and CPN-UML chairman Jhalanath Khanal and said that the message from China was loud and clear: get involved in the constitution-writing process.
Ping advised Koirala to move ahead to form a coalition government and draft a constitution through consensus, Nepali Congress sources said.
He also expressed the hope that all the political parties will be incorporated in drafting of the new constitution.
"China will not interfere in the internal affairs of Nepal," a Nepali Congress leader quoted Ping as saying.
Ping also asked UCPN-Maoist supremo Prachanda to accept the election results in which the former rebels received an unexpected drubbing.
The NC and CPN-UML emerged as the top two parties in the November 19 Constituent Assembly polls, the while Maoist's came a distant third.
"Our observation is that the people of Nepal have given the mandate that parties should move ahead by forging consensus," Prachanda's aide Chudamani Khadka quoted the Chinese leader as saying.
The UCPN-Maoist is hesitant to join the Constituent Assembly while its breakaway faction CPN-Maoist is calling for an outright boycott of the assembly.
"We apprised the envoy and the vice-minister of the post-election developments, our party's commitment to write the constitution and our stance on election results," UCPN-M leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara said.
Claiming that the votes were rigged, the UCPN-M had taken a tough stance to not become a part of the 601-member CA until an independent probe commission was set up, putting the process of drafting the countries constitution at risk.
