Several Nepali Congress (NC) lawmakers from the Tarai/ Madhes region have called on the party leadership to take initiatives to put the constitution amendment bill to vote in Parliament.

At a meeting on Tuesday, party office bearers, former office bearers and lawmakers from the Madhes region were of the view that local level elections must be held but efforts also should be made to amend the constitution before polls. “To ensure local level polls, we have to amend the constitution. So we have to take the amendment process forward as we prepare for elections,” NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba said after the meeting.

The NC, the largest party in Parliament and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s key coalition partner, has not come up with concrete viewpoint regarding the Madhes-based parties’ call for putting off polls and amending the constitution.

“We urged the party leadership to take initiatives to get the constitution amendment bill endorsed to accommodate Madhes-based parties’ demands,” NC lawmaker Farmulla Mansur said. “We also told the leadership that failure to do so will have serious implications in upcoming elections.”

Most of the NC lawmakers representing Madhes also told the party leadership that elections without constitution amendment will not send a positive message, according to leaders present at the meeting.

The party has scheduled its Central Working Committee meeting for March 23 to discuss all the pressing issues.