Speaking at an interaction programme organised by Press Chautari at Baghbazar in the Capital on Monday, leader Nepal remarked that the parties cannot backtrack from consensus and the constitution should be drafted through consensus.

The senior UML leader said that the opposition parties—UCPN (Maoist) and Madhes based parties— was discontented because of the nine-point joint proposal submitted at the PDCC. “It was a mistake in the part of ruling coalition to submit the joint proposal at the PDCC,” said Nepal, “This disgruntled the oppositions.”

Nepal said that the the opposition alliance successfully averted the statute promulgation deadlie which they wanted. “They averted the deadline of January 22 by backtracking from the agreed issues,” he said, “UCPN (M) and Madhes-based parties were successful in that.”

Leader Nepal remarked that the proposal of consensus made by Bijay Kumar Gachhedhar on January 22 was adept. “I also had proposed similar proposal but Bijay ji’s proposal was better than mine,” he said, “But it couldn’t materialise as the parties wanted to avert the constitution deadline.” He further said that Gachhedhar’s proposal may become the bottom line for future consensus efforts.

The UML leader further stated that his party was not firm on the issue of federalism.