The senior ruling coalition NC has proposed delineating the federal provinces ahead of the constitution promulgation as suggested by the public during the feedback collection campaign on the preliminary draft of the constitution. The proposition goes against the 16-point agreement signed by the four parties which states that the task of demarcating the federal boundaries would be mandated to a commission after the new constitution has been adopted.

While the Maoists and MJF-L are also in favour of finalising the federal boundaries before constitution promulgation, the UML is the only party which has rejected the idea. UML leaders have said that if the parties get into the task of delineating federal states now, it will further delay the already-delayed constitution writing process. The four parties have set the target of issuing the new constitution by mid-August.

Noting that there have been calls within UML for finalising the federal boundaries before constitution promulgation, NC leader Purna Bahadur Khadka said the UML leadership should

reconsider its position. “Since all the parties have asked their leaderships to finalise the delineation of federal provinces in the constitution, the heads of major parties will continue to make effort to that end till the last moment,” Khadka said.

UML Vice-chairman Bhim Rawal, however, said that the issue of delineating the federal provinces should be deferred for now in order to bring out the constitution in time. “We had tried unsuccessfully to finalise the model of federalism before deciding to form a commission for the job after the promulgation of the new constitution. Some of the parties are raising the same old issue at this crucial moment,” Rawal said.

The UML leaders suspect that Prime Minister Sushil Koirala brought up the issue to continue to remain in power.

Meanwhile, PM Koirala, in his meeting with the business community on Sunday, said that UML was being unnecessarily suspicious of him. “I will quit after the promulgation of the new constitution,” Koirala said. “We need a democratic constitution not just a constitution.”

Prime Minister Koirala is the view that the constitution will be accepted by the people only if the demarcation of federal states is resolved before its promulgation.  He has already started consultation with the disgruntled Madhes-based parties on how the issue of demarcation could be sorted out.