Kathmandu, October 9:

UML leader Yubraj Gyawali today demanded that Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala apologise in public for failing to keep his promise of holding the constituent assembly polls on schedule.

“The Prime Minister should apologise in public for failing to hold election on time and throwing the country into uncertainty,” he said while addressing an interaction organised by the New Media Club today.

He also blamed the Maoists for obstructing the CA election process. “By now, it has been established that the Maoists turned their back towards the constituent assembly election, which they had been demanding for years,” he said.

Nepali Congress leader Dip Kumar Upadhyaya said the blame for failing to hold CA polls should not fall on the PM or Prachanda but to all the political parties.

He urged the Maoists to abide by the peace accord and behave. Maoist leader Bamdev Chhetri said the Maoists alone were not responsible for the failure to hold CA polls on schedule because the major parties had agreed to suspend the poll process. Nepal Bar Association chairman Bishwakanta Mainali accused the Maoists of adding fuel to fire by raising the issue of ethnicity and deviating from the Marxism.

Law expert Laxman Kumar Aryal said the parties had lost the basis to claim that they had the people’s mandate to impose decisions. “The civil society should padlock party offices and prohibit the leaders from swearing in the name of the people,” he said.