Kathmandu, May 27:

The national politics of Nepal passed through an ordeal Sunday throughout the day. No one could predict the fate of the Constituent Assembly until the parties’ final meeting held to sort out the differences and promulgate the new constitution late in the night ended inconclusively.

The major political forces which were intensifying their formal and informal discussions for the past few days held several rounds of internal meetings in between the multilateral meetings about the pending issues of the constitution but in vain.

The Nepali Congress (NC), UCPN-Maoist and the hardline faction of the Maoist held internal discussions and brought different proposals to find the common ground of the consensus so that the promulgation of the new constitution could be possible by midnight. But their proposals were of no use.

Despite discussing for hours they failed to find the common ground to resolve the pending issues.

An informal joint meeting of the Central Working Committee (CWC) and Parliamentary Party (PP) of the Nepali Congress (NC) proposed 13 provinces for the state restructuring in the new constitution.

The meeting held at the residence of party president Sushil Koirala also decided to promulgate the constitution by incorporating the issues agreed among parties and let the parliament finalise rest of the issues.

After the meeting, NC vice president Ramchandra Paudel said they were in favour of federalism based on multiple identity.

NC leader Gagan Thapa said they had brought the new proposal to go to referendum to decide the 14-state proposed by UCPN-Maoist and Madhesi Front and 13-state proposal forwarded by Nepali Congress.

The UCPN-Maoist in their election manifesto had forwarded a proposal of 13 provinces.

He said his party’s proposal was more practical and justifiable than other parties’.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the UCPN-Maoist standing committee decided to be flexible regarding state-restructuring in the new constitution.

The meeting held at the prime minister’s official residence Baluwatar decided to strike a deal in the state restructuring.

During the meeting, discussions were held regarding the 13-province proposal forwarded by the Nepali Congress.

Meanwhile, a separate meeting of the Maoist hardliners led by vice chairman Mohan Baidhya ‘Kiran’ demanded the provision of 14 provinces in the new constitution.

The group had held the meeting at Buddhanagar but they did not forward their proposal for discussion.

Maoist vice-chairman Mohan Baidhya said that the new constitution should establish the identity based federal system with 14 provinces.

PM calls on President

Earlier in the morning, Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai called on President Dr Ram Baran Yadav at the latter’s Shital Niwas office.

During the meeting, the President suggested the Prime Minister that the parties should reach a consensus and resolve the contentious issues of the new constitution and promulgate it.

President Dr. Yadav urged the PM to find a common ground to promulgate the new constitution by Sunday.

Similarly, President Dr. Yadav discussed with the advocates about the legal provisions to resolve the political matters.

The advocates suggested the President about the constitutional solution and urged him to take constitutional steps to resolve the political deadlock.