Kathmandu, March 29:

General secretary of the CPN-UML Madhav Kumar Nepal today urged the Maoists to give up violent tactics to win the Constituent Assembly election and believe in people and respect the electoral mandate.

“I want to remind the Maoists not to see any dream of winning the election by mobilising Maoist combatants in the cantonments and Young Communist League cadres, as the state also has the police, Armed Police Force and the Nepali Army to prevent rigging in the polling stations,” Nepal said. He was addressing the party’s election rally in the Sahid Manch, where all 15 UML candidates were present to boost their campaigns.

He also warned the Maoists against mudslinging about the Nepali Army, which has a glorious history of protecting nationalism and sovereignty of the country. Nepal lauded the Nepali Army’s impartial role in the previous elections.

He warned that the Maoists would lose credibility and support of the people and the international community, which was watching the April 10 election very closely.

“I request the Maoists to learn lesson from Cambodia’s dictator Pol Pot, who ruled the country ruthlessly, but nobody was there to lift his coffin after he died in the jungle,” Nepal said, adding that the Maoists did not even get people’s sympathy when their 27 cadres were killed in Gaur last year because of their mistreatment to the people.

Saying that the people are fed up with the long drawn-out mayhem and violence, Nepal asked the Maoists to behave democratically and allow disseminating views of all the parties across the country in the run up to the election.

Addressing the rally, UML standing committee member KP Sharma Oli, who is contesting the CA polls from the Jhapa Constituency-7, said that they wanted to establish a democratic republican order, not a dictatorial one as wished by the Maoists.

Oli accused the Maoists of hobnobbing with the royalists and attacking the republican and Leftist forces, who want to overthrow monarchy.

“Do you believe in the Maoists who are seeking support of the royalists and reactionaries would help establish republic after the CA polls?” he questioned.

Another UML candidate from Kathmandu Constituency-5 Ishwor Pokharel said that Nepali Congress

is a party, which wants to maintain status quo even after the CA polls. Pokharel compared the NC with that of a “broken mirror attached to a wooden frame” which has “divergent views on the issue of republic”.

Bidhya Bhandari, a UML leader contesting election from Kathmandu Constituency-4, said that the NC would weaken the hard-earned democracy, while the Maoists would introduce dictatorship if either of the parties won the election. Rabindra Shrestha who recently joined the UML after defecting from the Maoist fold said electoral alliance could not be reached among the Leftist forces due to Prachanda’s adamant stance.