KATHMANDU: Nepali Congress and CPN-UML are pressing hard on the UCPN-Maoist to give up their rigid stance, a senior Maoist leader revealed here today.

“We got pressed up from the NC and the UML to give up our stance,” said Narayan Kaji Shrestha ‘Prakash’, vice-chairman of the main opposition party, Unified CPN Maoists. He was addressing an interaction in the capital, today.

Shrestha, however, sounded rigid and firm in his party’s stance, including those on President’s move. Shrestha looked complacent on UML senior leader Bharat Mohan Adhikary’s proposal on keeping the army under the civilian government but differed on the latter’s view over President’s move saying it was “contradictory”.

Meanwhile, NC leader Ram Sharan Mahat came down heavily on UCPN-Maoist accusing them of sticking to what he described as “unconvincing” and “dead” arguments.

“They’re just trying to deceive the people,” he said.

“Maoists are against the multi-party democracy and thus they take this unconvincing stance,” he said, adding, “Their unfit combatants should have left the cantonments last year, but they are still there creating hurdles.”

“We are here to revive the politics of agreement but we cannot go against the rule of law, the constitution and the past agreements,” Mahat said, urging the UCPN-Maoists to give up their past stance and come up with plans agreeable to all the parties.