Dahal-led alliance to seek interaction among parties

KATHMANDU, Aug 24: The Federal Democratic Republican Alliance (FDRA) of the ruling parties Friday decided to entrust UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is also Alliance coordinator, with the responsibility of taking immediate initiative for forging a consensus among the major political forces.



The first meeting of the FDRA also decided to hold an interaction in Kathmaudu on September 4 among all the political stakeholders including civil society members in a bid to find a solution to the political stalemate.[break]



"The interaction program will help find the solution and also help bridge the widening differences among political parties over the issue of federalism," said FDRA Spokesman Prem Bahadur Singh.







Another alliance led by the CPN-Maoist and named Federal People´s Republican Front (FPRF) had earlier convened a similar interaction in the capital, calling it a ´round-table assembly´.



Top leaders from various political parties, civil society leaders and representatives from some public institutions working in the field of state restructuring participated in the interaction.



Spokesman Singh claimed that the interaction to be convened by FDRA will be different from the roundtable organized by FPRF.



Singh also informed that Alliance Chairman Dahal will start a dialogue with the political parties in a bid to find consensus soon.



"We formed a nine-member secretariat for overseeing the regular activities of the alliance and also to assist Chairman Dahal," he explained. The members of the newly-formed secretariat are Jitendara Dev, Laxman Lal Karna, Rukmini Chaudhari, Biswendra Paswan, Keshav Man Shakya, Sadrul Miya Haq and Maalwar Singh Thapa, besides Chairman Dahal and Spokesman Singh.



The ruling 20-parties including Madhes-based ones had formed the alliance last week saying that a pro-federalist alliance had become the need of the hour. Earlier, 10 various fringe parties had joined the FPRF led by CPN-Maoist Vice-chairman CP Gajurel.



The opposition parties have been criticizing Dahal for forming a separate political bloc, calling it an attempt to further polarize the political forces at a time when consensus was what was needed to salvage the country from a quagmire of deepening mistrust among major political forces.

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