Visiting Indian FM fails to bring Madhesi parties together

KATHMANDU: Visiting Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid’s efforts to persuade madhesh-based parties for facing the proposed Constituent Assembly (CA) polls were confronted by senior Madheshi leaders.

A meeting between Khurshid and top guns of the Madhesh based parties on Tuesday that lasted nearly for one and half hour trailed out in fiasco after the leaders denied to give up their stances on issues related to CA polls.

In response to Khurshid’s query on whether they will forging unity for CA elections, most of the parties aligned with the existing Joint Democratic Madeshi Front (JDMF) stressed on the need to unite and contend in CA elections even if the dissenting parties lead by the CPN Maoist don’t participate in elections.

However, Rajendra Mahato, whose party is also part of the JDMF, confronted Bijay Kumar Gachhadar and Mahant Thakur’s claim and denied the possibility of joint CA election campaign between maddish based parties.

On the other hand, Upendra Yadav stressed on the need to hold CA elections only by bringing all dissenting political parties into confidence. He also warned that the nation would go into confrontation if the CA elections were held in the existing status quo.

Similarly J P Gupta, Sharad Singh Bhandari and Anil Jha also ruled out possibility of cooperation and unity between maddish based parties citing the need to address the demands put forward by ethnicity-based parties.

The trio also expressed reservations against the recommendation put forward by the electoral sector commission.

In response, Khurshid expressed surprise on the persistence of differences between maddish based parties and said that he was not aware of these situations.

Gupta said that Khursid has pledge for another visit in the near future to hold discussions on these issues.