BUTWAL, Feb 19: Talks between the CPN-UML’s three top leaders, facilitated by other UML leaders, have been postponed until Thursday evening after the leaders sat for over three hours to arrive at a consensus on the upcoming leadership. However, the first round of “high-level” talks didn’t come to any agreement.
After the meeting, all three leaders expressed their optimism towards achieving consensus on who should lead the party post-convention. “The discussions were extremely positive and very cordial,” Jhala Nath Khanal, one of the three, told journalists. “Positive indications have emerged.”[break]
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In the meeting between leaders Khanal, Madhav Kumar Nepal and KP Sharma Oli, held in the sidelines of the party’s 6-day eighth national convention that kicked off in this western town on Monday, other UML leaders (Amrit Bohara, Bam Dev Gautam, Bharat Mohan Adhikari, Pradip Nepal, Keshav Badal, Ashok Rai, Mukunda Neupane and Bishnu Poudel, among others) joined the three as facilitators.
Khanal also said there are “positive signs” of bringing the number of three contenders for the position of chairman down to just one. If there is no consensus, the leaders will go for electing the plum posts (chairman, vice-chairman, general-secretary and secretary) by 1,816 convention delegates.
The mediators’ relentless efforts to convince the three contenders for the party’s top job to decide on one consensus candidate yielded no fruit until Thursday morning. Khanal also gave indications that he won’t back off from contesting the coveted post of chairman.
After the meeting, Madhav Nepal didn’t want to talk much with journalists, while KP Oli commented he was 99 percent confident there will be an agreement among the leaders.
Soon after the meeting, held at a hotel where Nepal and Khanal are staying, they headed off to the convention venue, where 20 groups of delegates have started presenting their conclusions. The group leaders started giving their presentations on the political paper presented by Khanal, five supplementary proposals, and a statute amendment proposal tabled by Amrit Bohara Thursday afternoon.
