PM Koirala courts Madhesi parties

‘Caretaker’ Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala held discussions with the top leadership of Terai Madhesh Loktantrik Party (TMLP) and Sadbhawana Party (SP) at his Baluwatar residence Friday morning, giving off hints that he is engaged in a new political campaign.Although the meeting was said to have been arranged to learn ... the opinion of the fringe political parties regarding the ongoing efforts for government formation, sources at Baluwatar said PM Koirala requested the leaders of the two parties to back the new alliance comprising of his party Nepali Congress (NC), United Marxist and Leninist (UML) and Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) in its aspiration to lead the new government.The meeting comes a day after few NC and UML leaders said the alliance, that came into existence originally for the presidential election, will not break but will instead broaden its sphere. In this light, the meeting appears to be clearly aimed to bring the two Terai based parties, which had been seen close to CPN (Maoist) during the presidential run off, into the alliance and isolate the Maoists.PM Koirala is also learnt to have told the TMLP and SP leadership that the conditions put forward by the Maoists have caused a major dent on the politics of consensus and asked them to support the new alliance.During discussions with the 25 political parties Thursday, CPN Maoists had advanced three conditions if it is to lead the government --breaking of NC-UML-MJF alliance, formulation of common minimum programme and guarantee of government stability for two years.Emerging from the meeting with PM Koirala, TMLP chairman Mahanta Thakur said that during the meeting, he stressed upon the need for the formation of a government with consensus of all the political parties including the Maoists.Immediately after the meeting, PM Koirala met Indian ambassador to Nepal Rakesh Sood where he discussed the latest political developments including the formation of new government.

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