There’s no gentleman agreement to make Prachanda as PM: DPM Thapa

Kathmandu, May 07:  Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Kamal Thapa said there was no agreement reached to make UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal as the Prime Minister of national unity government.

Speaking at the face-to-face program of the Reporters’ Club Nepal on Saturday, DPM Thapa said the government will move ahead as per the nine-point agreement recently signed with the UCPN (Maoist). He said the incumbent government has faced no challenges or questions and claimed it would organise the local bodies and parliamentary elections in the next 18 months.

Thapa lauded the UCPN (Maoist) decision to stick with the KP Sharma Oli-led government saying the decision had bailed the country out from instability, he said while the program presided by the Club’s president Rishi Dhamala.

DPM Thapa has said that he would be happy to quit his post as the coordinator of high level talk team with the Madhes-based parties if problems were being faced to give the mechanism a full shape. “If I am the reason behind the failure to give a full shape to the talk team, I would be happy to quit,” he said. He claimed the government would intensify talks with the Madhesi parties.

Speaking about the government’s decision to recall Nepali envoy to India Dip Kumar Upadhyay, Thapa said he would answer it only on the parliament. “This issue has been raised in the parliament. I will answer it in the parliament,” he said.