KATHMANDU, MARCH 13

Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal leaders met CPN-MC leaders and discussed formation of the next government, on Saturday.

Emerging from the meeting, JSP-N Co-chair Mahantha Thakur said, although they discussed issues with the CPN-MC, no deal had yet been reached with the party.

"We have put forth our concerns and demands. Sometimes our demands are not met because some lawmakers abstain from voting in the Parliament and sometimes issues remain stuck in the courts," Thakur said in response to journalists' query.

He said the Madhesi forces were not in a position to call the shots and the three major forces- the CPN-UML, NC and CPN-MC, were dominant everywhere, including in the Parliament. "We are always in the forefront of any agitation, but we do not get our share," he added.

CPN-MC Spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha said talks between the two parties on forming a coalition government with the NC, CPN- MC and JSP-N were positive, but a deal had not been reached yet. He said a new coalition government was necessary to move the democratic process ahead by defeating the KP Oli-led government's regressive moves. He said his party would sit for talks with the JSP-N and NC again.

Meanwhile JSP-N leader Baburam Bhattarai has written on his facebook wall that the release of Resham Chaudhary and other Tharu leaders should not be made a condition for support to the regressive KP Sharma Oli's government. He asked, "If cases of the Jhapa revolt and the revolt of Netra Bikram Chand could be resolved politically, why not the cases of Tharu leaders?"

A version of this article appears in the print on March 14, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.