PM must step down for unity govt: Khanal

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

KATHMANDU: Chairman of the CPN-UML Jhalanath Khanal today said that the Baburam Bhattarai-led government must step down to lead the country towards consensus and mutual understanding in order to bring back the major parties from political polarisation.

He said that Bhattarai-led government’s ouster was a precondition for building consensus.

Addressing a function of the second representative meeting of the UML-aligned Narayani Zonal Samparka Committee, Khanal said that the country would head towards a failed state if Bhattarai insisted that he would not pave the way for the formation of a unity government without reaching consensus among the major parties.

Saying that the achievements gained through the 2006 people’s revolution could be institutionalised only through consensus, Khanal said his party was capable of taking the initiatives for consensus.

He also accused the Unified CPN-Maoist and Madhes-based parties of pushing the country towards serious constitutional crisis. “All the constitutional bodies are falling vacant in the absence of Legislature-Parliament and the fiscal budget is also incomplete,” Khanal said, stressing on the need for building consensus among the parties without any delay.

He also warned that the opposition parties would have no other option left for them than to launch people’s movement if the prime minister did not step down for the formation of a unity government, which he said, would resolve the political and constitutional crisis looming large. The CPN-UML leader also stressed that the autocracy of the UCPN-Maoist and Madhesi coalition must be brought to an end as early as possible.