The parties busied themselves throughout the day as Maoist, NC, UML and Madhesi Front leaders held rounds of bilateral talks but they were nowhere close to an agreement. The deadline (August 21) given by President Dr Ram Baran Yadav for the formation of the national consensus government will expire in three days. [break]
The parties, however, continue to iterate that each of them is in favor of a national consensus government and the NC and Maoists even said that they have agreed, in principle, to rotate premiership among the parties.
"We have agreed that we must be ready to rotate government leadership and we are ready for that. However, we could not forge consensus on who should lead the consensus government first," said Narayankaji Shrestha, Vice-chairman of UCPN (Maoist), emerging from a meeting with the Nepali Congress leaders on Thursday.
Seeking NC´s support for a consensual government under their party, Maoist leaders argued that they have the legitimacy, by virtue of being the largest party, to stake claim to government leadership.
NC leaders, on the other hand, argued that NC has not led a government after the Constituent Assembly election in 2008 (while both the Maoist and the UML did) and it would be reasonable for them to lead such a government as the Maoist party is yet to disassociate itself from its arms and armies.
Both parties agreed to hold further discussions on who should lead the next government. Top leaders of both NC and UCPN (Maoist) were present at the meeting.
Meanwhile, CPN-UML urged the UCPN-M to work toward forging a national consensus. "National consensus government can be formed if the Maoists bring concrete proposal regarding the peace process and take political parties in parliament, international community and public into confidence," said Bamdev Gautam, Vice-Chairman of CPN-UML.
Maoist Vice-Chairman Shrestha said, "The leaders of CPN-UML told us that they can accept Maoist leadership if there is a package agreement."
Meanwhile, United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF), an alliance of five Madhes-based political parties, suggested to the NC leadership to take initiatives for formation of a national consensus government stating that they are ready to support such a government.
"We clarified that we will lend our support to the party that will forge understanding for the formation of national consensus government," said, Bijaykumar Gachchadar, Chairman of Madhesi People´s Rights Forum-Democratic (MPRF-D), after meeting with NC leadership at Singha Durbar.
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