Sarlahi, June 13:

Tarai Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP) president Mahanta Thakur today asked the major political parties to stop hectoring the smaller ones and urged them to move ahead jointly for building a republic.

He said this while addressing a programme organised by the Journalism Development Academy at Malangawa.

Thakur said no political party has secured a clear majority in the Constituent Assembly and that the public mandate is for moving ahead with consensus and cooperation.

“In this context, it is wrong on the part of the big parties to dominate the smaller ones,” he said. “History has given a rare chance to the Nepali people to draft a statute of their own choice but the bigger parties were stalling the process by their nit-picking and bickering. The new statute should be drafted with the common consent of all parties,” he said.

Thakur said all the Madhesi parties would form a common platform to ensure the implementation of the earlier agreement with the government.

He said the TMDP would not join the government but only extend support on the basis of performance and press for fulfilment of its agenda. The TMDP would fully support Ram Raja Prasad Singh as the first president if his name is formally forwarded, he said, adding that the party would accept the result of election of a president.