Tanahun, March 18:

Minister for Peace and Reconstruction and Nepali Congress (NC) vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel today accused Maoist leaders of suffering from a “defeated mentality”.

Speaking to journalists after returning from a week-long electoral campaign from a remote village here in Damauli, he said: “Expressions from the Maoist leaders of disrupting the Constituent Assembly election indicate their defeated mentality.”

“The ongoing attacks by Maoist cadres on cadres of other parties campaigning for the CA election depicts their undemocratic behaviour,” he said.

A report from Kathmandu said the NC today questioned the commitment on the part of the CPN-Maoist to the CA election.

In a statement issued today, the NC has said the remarks by the Maoist leaders and the continuity by the Maoist cadres of criminal and violent activities have a cast shadow over the Maoist party’s commitment to the April 10 CA election.