“Govt, constitution in consensus irrespective of who gets majority”

Kathmandu: Women leaders of Nepali Congress and CPN (UML) have underlined the need of consensus on constitution drafting and government formation fronts regardless of who gets the majority in the upcoming Constituent Assembly.
Speaking at a face-to-face interaction programme organised by Reporters Club Nepal today in capital, Nepali Congress leader Sujata Koirala said that her party would move ahead with consensus, cooperation and unity with all the parties for constitution drafting and government formation.
She also claimed that consensus government would be formed under the leadership of NC president Sushil Koirala if it managed to be the largest party in the CA. She claimed that Koirala would be the undisputed candidate for the Prime Minister. “He is the president of the party. Under his leadership, the party win the election. His name has already been proposed for the PM in the CWC meeting. So he would be consensus candidate of the party for PM,” she reasoned.  However, she said that there should not be any squabbling for the post of PM. She said that the parties should put their first efforts towards the constitution drafting rather than brawling for the leadership of the government. Stating that the UCPN (Maoist) announcement of not accepting people’s verdict was wrong, she said that the party should move ahead in a way that the nation wins even though the party looses. Opining that some minor mistakes during the polls were obvious, she said that such mistakes should be taken as the lesson and rectify in the future polls.
Likewise, CPN (UML) vice-chairperson Bidya Devi Bhandari said that her party was in favour of moving ahead in consensus for the government formation and constitution promulgation.  She also informed that CPN (UML) would take lead for forging consensus. Bhandaru advised UCPN (Maoist) to not move towards totalitarianism by going against the people’s verdict. She argued that the election has mandated for drafting constitution with multi-identity based federalism rather than ethnic federalism.  According to Bhandari, not accepting the voting results after taking parts in the poll process was not a political character. She further claimed that UCPN (Maoist) would come to the CA. She added that the Maoists have nowhere to go escaping the CA.
Bhandari claimed that UML leader KP Sharma Oli would be the PM if the responsibility to lead the government comes for her party. There are no any disputes about it inside the party, she added.
Similarly, CPN-ML general secretary CP Mainali urged the winner party to move ahead with consensus. He said that the constitution drafting process would be easy if the consensus government was formed by bringing the dissident parties into the confidence.
Rastriya Janamorcha chairman Chitra Bahadur KC urged the NC and CPN (UML) to not wrangle over the government formation issue. He opined that the parties should realised the need of consensus for the promulgation of the new constitution. KC claimed that the people have rejected the politics of ethnicity and regionalism through the CA polls. Saying that the Maoists do not have the alternative to join the CA for drafting the new constitution, he ruled out the possibility of constitution through the round table conference.