Big 3 intensify meetings with disgruntled parties

KATHMANDU, Sept 22:  The government and three major parties have intensified meetings with the disgruntled Madhesi parties.

Prime Minister Sushil Koirala met with Tarai-Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP) Chairman Mahantha Thakur at the latter's central office Tuesday morning while top leaders of all three major parties visited the office of Madhesi People's Right Forum-Democratic (MPRF-D) to convince the disgruntled party to stop protest.Madhesi parties-- TMDP, Sadbhavana Party and Federal Socialist Forum Nepal (FSFN)--quit the vote on constitution bill and are protesting against the constitution along with MPRF-D, which was a signatory to the 16-point deal between parties to initiate constitution making process.

Prime Minister Koirala, Minister Mahesh Acharya and Nepali Congress leader Ananda Dhungana met with TMDP chair Thakur and urged him to settle the disputes through dialogue.

Following the meeting, Thakur reached Rajbiraj, where the alliance of TMDP, SP and FSFN were scheduled to meet to decide further moves of their alliance.

"Prime minister came to meet us without a concrete proposal. So we urged him to come up with a solid proposal to address our demands. I found that the prime minister himself was in confusion because of the coalition partners and senior leaders within his party," said Hridayash Tripathi.

"As we didn't receive concrete proposal, the meeting will obviously decide to intensify the protest," he added. The meeting of the alliance was continuing till late evening.

After the meeting with Thakur, the prime minister met with MPRF-D Chairman Bijaya Gachchhadar at his party office, where UML chair KP Oli and UCPN (Maoist) chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal joined the prime minister.

"They called for settling disputes through talks and we asked the major three parties to come up with a concrete opinion on provincial delineation of five disputed districts, delimitation of electoral constituencies on the basis of population and principles of proportional inclusion," said Ram Janam Chaudhary, the general secretary of MPRF-D.

MPRF-D and its fringe allies met in the evening and discussed the proposal of the three parties.

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