On Monday, the 19-party opposition alliance had announced a nationwide protest to press the ruling parties—Nepali Congress and CPN-UML—to settle the disputed issues of constitution writing through consensus.

Shrestha told Dahal that this was not the appropriate time to protest or go on a strike. The Maoist vice-chairman suggested that despite the souring relations

among the parties, there should be continuous talks to make progress on constitution writing task.

Shrestha is of the view that agreement on contentious issues of constitution writing is possible if all parties, including UCPN (Maoist), adopt flexibility on federalism, the major issue of disagreement. He has been urging the top leaders from his party as well as the leaders of ruling parties to at least issue a draft of constitution by January 22 deadline.

Shrestha also requested Dahal to resume talks with the ruling parties on contentious issues of new constitution.