Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has made it clear that he resigned from the prime minister’s post on his own without any pressure.

Addressing the Legislature-Parliament meeting on Tuesday, Dahal said that the coalition partner Nepali Congress would not have objected to his decision, had he expressed any desire to conduct both phases of the local level polls under his premiership.

He said that he decided to step down from the PM’s post out of satisfaction over his tenure and to honour the agreement reached with the Nepali Congress (NC). “There was an agreement between the NC and CPN (Maoist Centre) to conduct the local level elections by mid-April and change the government leadership following the elections,” said Dahal. “But the election date slightly stretched and the NC president showed flexibility on it.”

Dahal criticized the CPN-UML for obstructing the Parliament over the Election Commission (EC)’s decision to conduct re-polling in Bharatpur Metropolitan City Ward-19. He expressed sadness over Bhratpur incident where cadres of CPN (Maoist Centre) tore ballot papers when the counting of votes was underway.

He, however, said it would not be appropriate to question his party’s commitment to democracy.  He added that the peace process would not have come to a logical end without his party’s commitment to democracy.

Dahal called on the political parties remain open for dialogue to forge consensus on the constitution amendment so as to make it acceptable to a wider section of people.