Nepal parties seek new Govt before SAARC Summit

A day after the Cabinet gave the green signal to caretaker Prime Minister G P Koirala to represent the country at the SAARC Summit, the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) on Tuesday joined the Maoists in pressuring the veteran Nepali Congress leader not to attend the regional meet. The Maoists have already protested over the decision and demanded that a new Government be formed before the Colombo meet scheduled for August 2-3.

UML chief Jhalanath Khanal on Tuesday said the presence of the leader of a caretaker government at the SAARC meet would be inappropriate as it may derail Nepal's tradition of sending a consensus government to the regional meeting. Both the Communist parties wanted the ceremonial President to attend the regional conference.

Angered over the Cabinet decision, Maoist chief Prachanda had yesterday met Sri Lankan Ambassador to Nepal Sumith Nakanda and expressed the party's dissatisfaction over Koirala attending the meet and termed his participation as "illegitimate". Prachanda also asked the Sri Lankan envoy to convey to Colombo the Maoists objection to a caretaker Prime Minister attending the meet.

In an attempt to diffuse the dissent, Koirala today met former UML chief Madhav Kumar Nepal and sought his backing for the visit. Senior Maoist leader C P Gajurel had said that either a new government should be formed before the SAARC summit or the meet should be postponed.

PTI