KATHMANDU, Jan 15: Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai has told the president that either the latter should endorse the ordinances forwarded by the government or the dissolved Constituent Assembly (CA) should be reinstated to resolve the constitutional and legal crises.
The prime minister also asked the President Ram Baran Yadav not to extend any longer the deadline issued to the political parties to find consensus prime ministerial candidate saying that extensions have so far remained meaningless.
Bhattarai offered the suggestions to the head of state at a meeting between the two at the president´s office on Monday.
"The prime minister has suggested to the president to endorse the ordinances or to move toward reinstating the Constituent Assembly because the country cannot remain at the state of constitutional as well as legal deadlock. There is no other way to end the current deadlock than the two options [suggested by prime minister]," the prime minister´s political advisor Devendra Paudel told Republica.
The president is sitting on nearly a dozen ordinances saying that he wouldn´t endorse the bills proposed by the caretaker government in the absence of parliament unless the opposition parties support it.
Asked about the president´s response, Dahal said, "He didn´t give any clear reply but just listened to the prime minister."
Ruling parties to urge prez not to extend deadline
Expressing deep dissatisfaction over the repeated deadlines issued by President Ram Baran Yadav to the political parties to find a consensus prime ministerial candidate, the ruling parties have warned that they would not attend meetings called by the head of state if the latter kept extending the deadline in future.
A meeting of the top brass of the ruling parties, including UCPN (Maoist), held at the prime minister´s residence in Baluwatar on Monday concluded that it was unnecessary to extend the deadline in the status quo.
The ninth deadline given by the president to the political parties for consensus expired on Monday.
"If the president continued to extend the deadline, we will not attend the all-party meeting called by him in future," said Minister for Information and Communications Raj Kishor Yadav, who is also the chairman of Madhesi People´s Rights Forum-Republican (MPRF-R).
A meeting of the ruling parties. (Photo: Republica)
The ruling parties also decided to urge the president at the all-party meeting scheduled for Tuesday not to extend the deadline stating that repeated extensions of the deadline would drag the head of state into ´unnecessary controversy´.
"It is the responsibility of the political parties, not of the president, to forge consensus [on formation of national consensus government]," Yadav informed about the conclusion of the meeting.
The ruling alliance reiterated that it would not quit the government until the political parties arrive at consensus on all issues.
According to leaders present at the meeting, UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal proposed to raise the issue of Constituent Assembly (CA) revival saying it was not possible to conduct fresh polls for CA by mid April-May.
He also proposed to extend the Federal Democratic Republican Alliance (FDRA), an alliance of about two dozen political parties, to local level.
"We will discuss these issues at a meeting of FDRA called for Tuesday," Yadav said.
Dahal, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai and Chairman of Tarai Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP) Mahantha Thakur, among other top leaders, were present at the meeting.
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