Talks meaningless: Madhesi Front talks team
Kathmandu, Jan 19: A talks team formed by the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF), has said that it would not sit for talks with the taskforce formed by the major three parties, saying the talks with the taskforce was meaningless.
The UDMF team said that the next meeting would be held between the top leader of the parties associated with UDMF and top leaders of the three major political parties as the government taskforce did not budge from its stance as was seen in course of promulgating the new constitution.At a press meet organised by the UDMF team at the office of the Tarai-Madhes Loktantrik Party at Bijulibazaar today, the team clarified that the talks, however, with major political parties were significant.
On the occasion, TMLP Vice-Chairman Hridayesh Tripathi said that they, in course of meeting with thetaskforce and UDMF team held at the official residence of the Prime Minister on Monday evening, reached to the conclusion that they could not sit for talks with the government taskforce.
Tripathi said, “The attitude and posturing shown by the taskforce on Monday meeting hurt us. So we decided not to sit for talks with it.”
The government task force comprises Nepali Congress leader Mahesh Acharya, CPN (UML) Vice-Chairman Bhim Bahadur Rawal and UCPN (Maoist) General Secretary Krishna Bahadur Mahara while the UDMF talks team comprises TMLP Vice-Chairman Tripathi, Sadbhawana Party Co-Chair Laxmanlal Karna and Rajendra Shrestha of the Federal Socialist Forum Nepal. The teams were formed on how to address the 11-point demand of the agitating UDMF and demands presented in the Legislature-parliament regarding constitution amendment.
Tripathi blamed that they had reached closer to agreement on the different issues raised by the UDMF including state restructuring, delineation of federal states, language, among others, but it vitiated all of a sudden.
He further said that now the talks would be held at the top leadership level and they would not join it.
Similarly, Karna said that although they have wanted resolution of the problems through constitution amendment, the three major political parties did not adopt flexibility in this regard.