Kathmandu, May 23:

Senior vice-chairman of the UCPN-Maoist Mohan Baidhya Kiran Wednesday said that the move to extend the tenure of the Constituent Assembly raised serious concerns.

In a joint press statement, party general secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa also expressed his concerns over the government decision.

The Maist leaders called for promulgating the constitution within the May 27 deadline and objected to the government’s move to extend the CA term by three more months.

They said the major political parties had not done enough exercise to bring the constitution by the deadline and added that they were only after extending the CA term by changing the calendar for accomplishing the tasks of peace and constitution writing.

The statement said that the major political parties failed to write the constitution.

Calling for a review of the government decision, the leaders said the political parties should find a consensus way out of the crisis.

They said that they had withdrawn their protest programmes to ease the way out of the problems.

Meanwhile, Secretary of the UCPN-Maoist, CP Gajurel has objected to the government registering a proposal for extending three month tenure of the Constituent Assembly.

He said the government act of extending CA term in the gestures of foreign forces rather than that of Nepalese people was objectionable and he therefore, deplores it.

Speaking at a press meet organized after the meeting of the Joint National People’s Movement Committee, here today, Gajurel said the government created more confusion among the people by trying to extend the CA term.

"There was a great hope among the people that constitution will come on May 27, this act has shattered the hope", he said.

He also informed that the Committee has withdrawn its Nepal Banda strike programme called for May 25.

A leader of Baidya faction of the UCPN-Maoist, Gajurel also said the party chairman and Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai had not consulted them on extending the CA term.