In separate meetings with top leaders of the ruling Nepali Congress and CPN-UML, opposition leader Dahal said his party could reconsider street protests if the ruling coalition agreed to promulgate the new constitution through consensus.

The Maoist proposal comes a day before the expiry of the deadline provided by CA Chairman Subas Nembang to agree on a way out of the logjam. He has warned of resuming the CA proceedings after Sunday if the parties fail to resolve the disputes mainly over federating the country.

Despite having similar views on preparing the new calendar, the ruling and opposition parties were divided over an alternative to the consensus way of constitution writing.

“The Maoists did not want to think of Plan B if consensus efforts go futile again,” UML Vice-chairman Bhim Rawal said after the meeting.

Prime Minister Sushil Koirala and UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli reached an understanding on Saturday to make efforts to promulgate the new charter by May 29, the Republic Day, by building consensus among the key forces.

In a meeting held at Oli’s residence in Balkot, the two leaders also agreed to promulgate the statute through majority votes in the CA if consensus efforts go in vain. They were of the view that constitution writing could complicate further if the process was prolonged.

“New CA calendar is not an issue. We should be clear on the alternatives if the constitution cannot be framed in consensus,” said NC leader Ramesh Lekhak.

The ruling parties want to resolve the disputes through a vote in the CA as efforts

for accord have failed for months while the opposition parties want to continue the consensus bid until the contention is resolved at the political level.

In Saturday’s meeting, the Maoist party asked the ruling parties to accept its position on federalism. The Maoists advocate eight provinces if the provincial assemblies are to be authorised to name the states later or to go for six provinces if the parties agree to name the units to reflect multiple identities.

Contrary to the Maoist position, NC and UML have proposed to federate the country into seven provinces, allowing provincial assemblies to name them. The ruling parties also asked the opposition to withdraw their scheduled street protests.

Parties still at odds as deadline expires today

The deadline provided by Constituent Assembly (CA) Chairman Subas Nembang to the parties to settle the disputed issues of constitution writing process expires on Sunday. But as of Saturday evening, the informal negotiation between the ruling and the opposition parties was nowhere close to reaching a point of agreement.

Formal meeting among the senior leaders of major political parties has not even convened.

Nembang has already announced that he will fix the date of CA session to resume the majority process in order to settle the disputes if there is no consensus by Sunday evening.

Sources closed to Nembang told the Post on Saturday that he may grant a few more days to the parties to reach a consensus if their leaders make a joint request.

If the leaders show the sincerity towards settling the contentious issues through a consensus, then he will provide some more days, the sources added.

CA Chairman Nembang has said that he cannot continue granting time to the parties by keeping the CA idle, though he prefers the path of consensus.

On February 12, Nembang had adjourned the CA session in order to create an atmosphere for the consensus among the parties.

Meanwhile, the opposition alliance led by UCPN (Maoist) is all set to launch “aggressive protest” from Sunday, which includes boycotting the programmes attended by prime minister and ministers. Some opposition leaders have even threatened to boycott the CA session, if the majority process is resumed to resolve the contentious issues of constitution writing.

The alliance has also announced a general strike next week. Leaders from the ruling parties have urged the opposition to call off the strike, saying that organising protests at this juncture will only increase the rift between the two sides in the coming days.