Fresh polls not possible‚ says Pokharel

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

ITAHARI: CPN-UML Secretary Shankar Pokharel today clarified that his party cannot accept yet another election of the dissolved Constituent Assembly with Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai at the helm, whom he described as the cruel murderer of the CA.

Speaking at a cadres' training, Pokharel warned of a nation-wide agitation should the UCPN-Maoist fails to make any consensus with other parties in the next one week time.

"As it was the prime minister who murdered the CA and thus dashed people's dream of a new statute, we won't accept Bhattarai as a hero, instead we will start an agitation with the people's support to expose his real character," he said, adding the prime minister conspired against the CA despite the UML and Congress' attempt to save it at all cost till the last moment.

"Till then we had shown utmost flexibility to save the historic achievement even by declaring an emergency, but our efforts fell flat before the Maoist conspiracy," he said. Further, terming the declaration of CA election as another unconstitutional act carried out by the government, he alleged that the Maoist party is still guided by its long-cherished wish to impose authoritarianism in the country.

"The prime minister is now looking at the right opportunity to seize all state power and be a new Jung Bahadur, under whose leadership constitutional bodies such as the election commission and others became virtually non-functional," he reasoned.

Expressing regret over the 'misinterpretation' of the opposition parties' urge to the President to remain alert at the Maoist act against the constitution, he argued, "The President as guardian of the statute should be active at a time when conspiracies against the constitution are rife. Otherwise, what is the purpose of the post?"