Kathmandu, January 30:

The two-day intra-party interaction on Madhes issues organised by the Unified CPN-Maoist concluded today with most of the speakers emphasising on carving out many states across the Tarai instead of a single autonomous Tarai-Madhes state demanded by a few Madhes-based parties.

The party had held the interaction in Kharipati, Bhaktapur, to evolve a strategy on the Madhes issues after it felt heat in the southern plain of the country since it ushered in power.

The party had realised that its hold in the Tarai-Madhes had diminished as it failed to correctly

identify the burning problems and ways to address them.

Maoist leaders Krishna Dev Danuwar, Prabhu Sah and Ram Rijan Yadav had presented

separate papers at the interaction on various aspects of Madhes issues. Intellectuals of Madhesi origin were also invited in the programme.

“The interaction mainly discussed on identifying the Madhesi concerns and the best ways to address them,” Dinanath Sharma, party spokesperson, said at the end of the meeting.

Sharma said most of the speakers aired their views that the issues of Madhes are of national concern and those were also related to class, ethnic/caste and the issues of exclusion from the state affairs.

He said the suggestions from the meeting would be capitalised to address the Madhesi grievances.

He, however, said most of the participants who aired their views on the issue were of the opinion that the entire Tarai-Madhes cannot be a single state.

“There can be no single federal state in the Tarai-Madhes region, considering its geography and diversities in culture and languages,” Sharma said.

He quoted party chairman Prachanda as saying that the views aired in the interaction would be synthesised to implement them while carving out the federal states.

Prachanda is also learnt to have told the participants that the problem arose due to internal differences within the party and there had been flaws while selecting CA candidates from Tarai-Madhes for PR seats in the CA.

He, however, clarified that the party had no intention of taking action against Matrika Yadav. He would personally meet Yadav after he returns from China.

He said the party would launch a special campaign in the Tarai at the earliest.

Sharma said the central secretariat meeting scheduled for Sunday would further dwell on the suggestions given by the participants.

The party will come up with its official stand on the Madhes issues after the secretariat meeting, he added. About 150 people had taken part in the interaction.