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News Analysis: Tussle between ruling and opposition deepens in Nepal

Xinhua, January 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

The ongoing tussle between Nepal' s ruling and opposition parties is likely to deepen as both sides remain firm in their respective positions on drafting the new constitution and there are no signs of thaw, cross-party leaders said Saturday.

Due to the dispute between ruling and opposition parties, parties missed the self-imposed Jan. 22 deadline of promulgate the new constitution.

After opposition lawmakers created obstacles for the ruling party leaders to table a proposal for the formation of the Questionnaire Committee, chief of Constituent Assembly (CA) Subas Nembang is preparing to table the proposal himself.

But the opposition party is bent to block any proposal that is tabled. "We cannot support such a proposal and it would raise the questions over the neutrality of the CA chairman," senior leader of opposition party UCPN (Maoist) Baburam Bhattarai said in his Tweeter Post.

The opposition front led by UCPN (Maoist) has called a meeting of its allies to prepare their strategy in the CA meeting which is to be held on Sunday. There are high chances of renewal of confrontation between the ruling and the opposition parties.

In the ruling alliance, there are first and second largest parties Nepali Congress and CPN-UML along with some fringe parties. In the opposition front, there are UCPN (Maoist) and Madhes-based parties, the regional parties that are active in southern belt.

On Tuesday night, Nepal's CA turned into a battle ground after the ruling parties attempted to present a proposal for initiating a voting process on the contentious issues of a new constitution.

Ruling party leaders maintain that as there are no chances of hammering out an agreement among the parties, the opposition parties should cooperate to promulgate a new constitution through the decision of voting process.

The ruling parties command two-third of strength in the 601- member Constituent Assembly (CA)."We are in favor of consensus but if that eludes, the constitution should be promulgated with support from two-third lawmakers," said CPN-UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal in a press conference.

The ruling and opposition parties have blamed each other for the delay in the constitution drafting. In his address to the country on Friday night, Prime Minister Sushil Koirala complained that the constitution drafting process was obstructed due to the undemocratic culture.

Senior leader of opposition party UCPN (Maoist) Bhattarai, however, said ruling parties are trying to bypass the key players of peace process.

Among others, federalism remains one of the key contentious issues of the constitution drafting process in Nepal. Ruling parties want fewer provinces, while opposition maintain that there should be more provinces and ethnic federalism. Endi