Nepal’s key Opposition parties including UCPN-Maoist and Joint Madhesi Forum have threatened to walk out of the Constituent Assembly if the ruling parties adopt voting process to promulgate the new constitution. UCPN-Maoist chairman Prachanda warned that his party UCPN- Maoist, Madhes-based parties and other fringe parties may walk out of the Constituent Assembly (CA), if the ruling Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UMl tried to promulgate the constitution through two third majority vote.
Talking to a national daily, Republica, on Wednesday, Prachanda said, “If push comes to shove, we, the Maoists, Madhesis and ethnic groups in the Assembly will boycott it.” He, however, ruled out the possibility of a last minute breakthrough in the constitution writing process before the January 22 deadline expires.
The mistrust between the ruling and Opposition alliances reached its climax after Wednesday’s verbal war between the Sadbhawana Party chairman Rajendra Mahato and CPN-UMl chairman KP Sharma Oli.
UMl was in favour of demarcating the country from South to North merging parts of hilly regions of the country to the Terai, while Madhesi parties were in favour of demarcating the country from East to West arguing that the entire southern plains should come under either the Terai region or Tharuhat region belonging to another major ethnic group of Terai.