Kathmandu, July 6:

Prominent political leaders from the Tarai region are working to form a Front.

Influential Nepali Congress (Democratic) leaders have been leading the efforts in this regard and talks to include the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) and Nepal Sadbhawana Party (Anandidevi), among other parties, are on.

The NC (D) leaders representing the Tarai region say they are looking for an “alternative” to the “delayed progress” in the unification process between the two Nepali Congresses.

NC president and Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s call for unification of the two parties in February 2004 had encouraged NC (D) leaders, but now they are losing hopes, gradually. “Whatever little hopes we had have gone now, with both Koirala and NC (D) President Sher Bahadur Deuba not serious about it,” NC (D) central leader Bijay Kumar Gachhedhar told this daily today. He also said the front will come up “soon,” most probably by early next month.

Gachhedhar said that his requests to party president Deuba on the the unification issue did not work. “I strongly raised the issue of the unification before him (Deuba) for the overall interest of the nation and the party…but in vain,” he said, justifying the need of the front that would encompass all the disgruntled section of the parties.

He said that they were holding talks to include the MJF in the front. “Yes, we held talks with them (MJF). Others will also join us,” he said, without elaborating.

Equally interested on the issue is Hridayesh Tripathi, former general secretary of Nepal Sadbhawana Party (Anandidevi), who emphasised on the need of a party, which would work for the overall interest of the Madhesh and the people there to ensure a “good majority” of the Tarai people in the constituent assembly.

“The need of a regional party or a front that would work for the betterment of Madhesh is an urgent one,” Tripathi told this daily today.

The news of a front in the making comes barely a week after senior republican leader Ram Raja Prasad Singh said that he was proposed to lead another front, during a meeting participated by several political factions of the Tarai, including the MJF, NSP(A) and both the factions of the Janatantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha (JTMM), in Darbhanga of Bihar.