Top leadership of the party made the request during an informal meeting of the party´s CA members belonging to various ethnic groups in Singha Durbar. [break]It came days after two of its CA members Indra Bahadur Gurung and Jip Chhiring Lama joined a cross party meeting of ethnic and Madhesi communities and vowed to defy party´s whip to meet the interests of ethnic community.
NC President Sushil Koirala had met separately with both Gurung and Lama in the morning and told them that party would not tolerate if they chose to cross the floor against the party´s official stance. He assured the party would leave no stones unturned to address their concerns.
While addressing the informal meeting, NC Vice President Ram Chandra Paudel asked them not to seek single-identity based province. "It is not appropriate to raise demand for a single-identity based province as we are preparing to give the rights to determine their name to the province concerned," CA member Dhan Raj Gurung quoted Paudel as saying.
Paudel argued that NC´s proposal best meets the interests of ethnic communities though it had drawn criticisms from some activists groups.
"NC has done a lot for the cause of ethnic communities and it will continue stand for their cause. We should not move towards disturbing social harmony," he said at the meeting.
The CA members had complained that the party´s official stance on various issues including federalism had subjected them to criticisms from various quarters, mainly from ethnic communities.
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