KATHMANDU: Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, to ensure that Maoists’ no-trust vote against the is defeated if it is tabled in the parliament, has intensified consultations with fringe parties to win them over.

Nepal today met leaders of four political parties - Malbar Singh Thapa of Rastriya Janamukti Party, Keshav Man Shakya of Newa: Rastriya Party, Bishwendra Paswan of Dalit Janamukti Party and Eknath Dhakal of Nepal Pariwar Dal - in this regard. He had met Chandra Dev Joshi, Sunil Manandhar and Thakur Sharma of CPN (United) yesterday.

“Although, the PM did not talk about defeating the no-trust vote, he sought our support to the government,” said one

of the participants after

he met the PM today at

the PM’s office in Singha Durbar.

Sources at the PM’s office said the PM’s consultations would continue even with other parties and he was doing this as part of taking them into confidence.

The leaders of the four parties today told the PM that the CA tenure could be extended by a year. “There is no precedence in the world that constitution can be written in less than three years by such an assembly. It will be better to extend the CA’s tenure by a year,” Thapa of the Rastriya Janamukti Party told the PM.

They said a national unity government should be formed with the support of at least two-third of the 601-member CA,” Thapa said.

The fringe-party leaders also urged the PM to take a decision on managing the Maoist combatants as soon as possible. “Separate security bodies for border security and industrial security could be set up to manage the Maoist combatants,” Keshab Man Shakya of Newa: Rastriya Party told the PM.