Nepali Congress asks Maoist to join govt

KATHMANDU: A key partner in the Nepal government today asked the Maoists to join the 22-party coalition and provide the much-needed stability to
push ahead with the stalled peace process instead of trying to topple the administration.
A day after UCPN-Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ claimed that the present coalition will collapse “within weeks” and another government led by the former rebels would be formed, Nepali Congress party general secretary Bimalendra Nidhi said efforts to dismantle the present government will bring political instability in the country.

Efforts to dismantle the present dispensation “will only bear political instability” and adversely affect the peace process, he said at an interaction programme here today.

Nidhi asked the Maoists to “join the present coalition if they really want to take the peace process to a logical end”. He said since CPN-UML coalition is a broader alliance of national consensus, the Maoists can also be accommodated.

The senior Nepali Congress leader demanded that the Maoists end the one-and-half-month long disruption of the Parliament in order to build a national consensus to move forward the peace process and pave the way for drafting a new constitution for the country.

He categorically ruled out the possibility of the formation of a Maoists-led government in the present context as the ruling coalition has the support of 22 of the total 25 political parties.