PM, Prachanda meet conclusive; interim govt tomorrow

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and the Maoist leaders have reached an agreement on the formation of the interim government by tomorrow.

In a meeting with Maoist Chairman Prachanda and Maoist second in command Dr. Baburam Bhattarai at his Baluwatar residence today morning, Koirala said that the interim government would be formed tomorrow after yet another round of consultations with the eight parties.

Taking note of Prachanda’s complaints regarding the issues like no action against the guilty of Gaur incident, unilateral promotion of army and police personnel and the formation of Electoral Constituency Delineation Commission (ECDC) without any consultations, PM Koirala assured that he would take care of all the issues, sources said.

According to sources, the PM made a final attempt today to convince the Maoists — who had even threatened not to join the interim government – in the wake of disagreements between the four major parties regarding distribution of ministerial portfolios.

In the 45-minute long meeting, the Prime Minister had also urged the Maoists not to disrupt the parliamentary sittings, sources added.

The Maoists, who had forwarded a three-day ultimatum to the government and that they might even opt to stay out of the new administration earlier this week, yesterday disrupted the House session demanding the formation of the interim government.

In reply to Prachanda’s statement that his party was preparing to announce fresh protests as the possibility of CA elections looked dim, Prime Minister Koirala expressed his commitment to hold elections to the Constituent Assembly (CA) on time, sources said.

According to sources, both the parties have agreed to form a small interim government before PM’s departure for New Delhi to attend the 14th SAARC Summit.

Earlier, political disagreements had arisen between the CPN-M and the NC after the former demanded that it should be given the Deputy Prime Minister's post, while the PM said that there should be no Deputy Prime Minister in the interim government.