A day after the ruling parties decided to express their political commitment to address the key demands of the agitating Madhes-based parties, Chairman of the High-level Political Committee Pushpa Kamal Dahal held dialogue with top leaders of the Madhes-based parties.

A meeting of the ruling parties had earlier entrusted Dahal with the task of reaching out to the agitating parties. The coalition decided to hold talks at the top level after the dialogue involving second-rung leaders failed to resolve the disputes.

Deputy PM and Minister for Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa and a senior CPN-UML leader nominated by Prime Minister KP Oli are the members of the Dahal-led team.

On Saturday morning, Dahal and Thapa held a meeting with Tarai Madhes Loktantrik Party Chairman Mahantha Thakur and Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum Nepal Chairman Upendra Yadav. Dahal said after the talks that there had been a positive development towards ending the Madhes crisis.

The Nepali Congress has also reached out to the disgruntled regional parties.

The largest party refused to be part of the Dahal-led talks team demanding an all-party or parliamentary committee instead to deal with the crisis.

The ruling parties are said to be ready to make a political commitment to the demands of the Madhes-based parties, mainly on federalism. “After the pledge, the demands will be addressed through constitutional amendments,” Prime Minister’s Press Adviser Pramod Dahal said without elaborating on the modality.

Delimitation of electoral constituencies on the basis of population, inclusive and proportional representation of marginalised communities in the state mechanism, and redrawing the federal boundaries are major demands of the fringe parties.

The Madhes-centric parties have said they would withdraw the protests only after amendments to the constitution as demanded. The UML is of the view that the final decision on demarcation should be taken through the federal commission as provisioned in the constitution.

The opposition NC maintains that the ongoing crisis will be resolved if the amendment proposal registered by the Sushil Koirala-led government is approved by Parliament. However, the protesting parties have disowned the proposal saying that it does not address the demarcation issue.