Pokhara, February 16:

CPN-UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal said today that incidents like blasts and disturbances in public meetings of political parties would not scuttle the CA polls.

Speaking at his party’s sixth Kaski district council meeting, Nepal said the armed groups waging war in the Tarai should be contained in order to hold the CA polls. Citing the situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Nepal said it was impossible to achieve total peace for the polls. Nepal said the Tarai people would not create hurdles in the CA polls. The royalists would try their best to spike polls, he said.

Stating that a majority of the Tarai people and parties there were in favour of holding the polls, Nepal urged the government to crack down on the armed groups waging a war in the Tarai.

Nepal said if the CPN-Maoist or the Nepali Congress tried to put off the CA polls scheduled for April 10 on one pretext or another, the people would not take it lying down. He said most of the demands of the Madhesi people had been met. He also urged the people not to think that the Madhes issue would stymie the CA polls.

Nepal directed party cadres to gear up for poll campaigning. He said that the Maoists had still not changed their conduct and added that any poll-related understanding with them would be possible only when they improve their behaviour. He also alleged that on one hand Maoist chairman Prachanda was trumpeting that his party would forge a poll alliance with the UML, on the other Maoist cadres were disrupting the UML’s public meetings.

UML standing committee member Bamdev Gautam said that the king, after giving an interview to a Japanese newspaper, was trying to get active again. He also accused some institutions of siding with the king and added that all of them would meet a sticky end. Gautam said that certain groups within the Nepali Congress were trying to hijack the interim constitution and revive the constitution of 2047 BS. The UML district council meeting will continue tomorrow.