Parbat, June 12:

Maoist leader and Minister for Local Development Dev Gurung said today that his party will not make a compromise on the issue of selecting president.

Minister Gurung said his party will launch an agitation if Prime Minister Girirja Prasad Koirala or CPN-UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal is made president of the country.

Speaking at the inauguration of the party’s second district convention in Parbat, the Maoist leader Gurung said, “We are close to an understanding on other issues, but on this one there can be no compromise.”

He said another power centre will emerge if Prime Minister Koirala or CPN-UML former general secretary Nepal is made the first president.

He pointed at a possible conflict among the three major parties.

The minister said, “Instead of the two leaders, anyone out of Ram Raja Prasad Singh, human rights activist Padma Ratna Tuladhar and Foreign Minister Sahana Pradhan can be made president.”

Gurung said the Maoists will have no objection if Pradhan is named president, though she is from the CPN-UML.

“She happens to be a woman leader and also the wife of late Pushpa Lal Shrestha. We won’t object if her name is proposed for the presidency,” said Gurung.

Maoist activists interrupted and shouted slogans when Nepali Congress Parbat district president Navaraj Gurung began talking about excesses committed by the Maoists and the Young Communist League.

The NC leader had no option except to cut short his address.