Kathmandu, March 11:

Opposition leaders today said that the seven-party alliance and the Maoists were holding talks with a view to evolving a single view regarding the procedure of going for an election to a constituent assembly and further strengthening the 12-point understanding reached between the two sides in November last year.

“We are holding serious talks with the Maoists to further strengthen the understanding and get it fully implemented,” said Dr Shekhar Koirala, a central working committee member of the Nepali Congress. He said that the talks are underway to remove confusions that emerged since the signing of the understanding.

He made it clear that the parties would not hold talks with the King unless he returned to constitutional limits. “We do not consider the King as a constitutional force until he fully returns to the constitutional limit,” said Koirala at the Reporters’ Club. He said no talks would be successful unless the Maoists were involved and international community was involved as witness.

Central committee member of the CPN-UML Shankar Pokharel speculated that the parties and the Maoists must have focused their talks about the ways to evolve a “single view regarding the procedure of the constituent assembly”. The alliance and the Maoists have differences of opinions about the ways of holding the assembly polls.

Content of the talks would not be made public unless they were agreed upon between the two sides, Pokharel said, adding that the peaceful joint movement of the agitating parties would not succeed unless the Maoists suspended violence like blockade and general strikes.

Nepali Congress (Democratic) leader Dip Kumar Upadhyaya urged the King to heed on the flexibility shown by the Maoists to find a solution to the political crisis. “The King must give up the hope of remaining an active monarch if he is sincere to find a peaceful solution,” Upadhyaya said.

Vice chairman of Janamorcha Nepal Leelamani Pokharel viewed that the Maoists’ violent activities should not affect the alliance’s planned agitation beginning from April 8. He said that it was necessary to upgrade the 12-point understanding and hoped that the talks would bring positive results.

Joint general secretary of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (Rana) Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan, however, stressed the need for evolving a common political roadmap between the King, parties and the Maoists to find an amicable solution to the crisis.

He urged the government to use its formal and informal channels if it was interested in holding dialogue with the parties.

Meanwhile, a report from Ramechhap said chairperson of the Democratic National Youth Association Nepal (DNYAN), Gokarna Bista, said today that the seven party leaders are in New Delhi to revise the 12-point understanding reached with the Maoists.

Inaugurating the forth Ramechhap district conference of DNYAN, Bista said the leaders are holding talks with the Maoists with the objective to intensify democratic movement.

Bista warned that the youths would take action against the leaders who give up agitation and compromise with the palace.

He said the parties are going to initiate a decisive phase of agitation by gathering some 500 thousand people in Kathmandu on April 8 next month.

All the educational institutions, transportation services and hospitals would be closed in the civil disobedience movement the parties are planning to launch, Bista said.

He accused the Maoists of violating the 12-point agreement in various places.

Former member of parliament, Dev Shankar Poudel, UML leader Kailash Dhungel, DNYAN central members Hasta Pandit and Pradip Kakhal, president of FNJ (Ramechhap) Himal Dhungel, journalists and human rights activists addressed the function.

The conference formed a 17-member committee under the chairmanship of Lava Shrestha.