The prime minister tendered his resignation at the end of the central committee meeting of CPN-UML and headed straight for Shital Niwas to submit his resignation to President Dr Ram Baran Yadav. [break]
"The prime minister resigned after he could not achieve desired progress in the peace process, constitution-writing and consensus-making," Prime Minister´s Press Advisor Surya Thapa told journalists at Shital Niwas Sunday evening after the PM tendered his resignation to the President.
The prime minister was supposed to put in his papers in parliament on Monday after he defaulted the self-imposed deadline of August 13 for his resignation. He was not specific about his resignation even during a meeting of major parties at his official residence Sunday morning.
But Khanal seems to have changed his mind after senior leaders of his party Madhav Kumar Nepal, KP Oli and General Secretary Ishwor Pokharel, among others, on Sunday advised him to quit and inform the parliament of his decision on Monday.
The prime minister´s resignation has once again led national politics to uncertainty as it is not yet clear what kind of government will come to power — whether one based on majority or political understanding. Last time, the country had to wait for six months to see a new prime minister when the then Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal stepped down even though there was no clear alternative to his government. Nepal remained a caretaker prime minister for more than six months.
Both UCPN and CPN-UML have staked claim for the leadership of the new government. CPN-UML, which led two successive governments in last 23 months, is yet to make its position clear on the future government.
Elected as the prime minister after 17th round of voting in parliament in February, Khanal had promised to forge a national consensus if he was elected the prime minister. But political consensus remained elusive throughout his nearly six and a half months of tenure, something the prime minister conceded in his resignation paper to the President.
In his resignation paper, the prime minister said he would make efforts to forge consensus among parties, according to Thapa.
The peace process remained largely stalled over the last six months. The Special Committee under his leadership had announced a time-table in June to complete the peace process by August 10. The promise fell apart after the parties failed to agree on key issues of the peace process. However, the satellite cantonments got monitors during his tenure.
The prime minister made his last ditch effort Sunday morning to have all the parties on-board to advance the stalled peace process but faced another round of inconclusive talks, offering him no choice but to step down.
In the meeting, the prime minister floated his proposal to settle contentious issues of the peace process, namely modality of integration, number of Maoist combatants to be integrated, integration norms and rehabilitation packages.
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