UML top brass in talks to pacify dissidents

KATHMANDU, JUL 08 -

In their bid to win over disgruntled marginalised communities, CPN-UML leaders have started discreet talks with Janajati and Madhesi leaders.

Party sources said that Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal, following suggestions from the party rank and file, requested senior leaders to hold talks with the dissident leaders and convince them of the party’s line of multiple identity-based federalism. Khanal is under pressure to maintain party unity.

“I advised the chairman to take initiatives to protect party leaders instead of forcing them out. Talks are under way,” said Central Committee member Gokarna Bista. One Janajati leader said that party Secretaries Yubaraj Gyawali and Bishnu Poudel were assigned to convince the dissident leaders. They held discussions with Prithvi Subba Gurung, Kiran Gurung and other Janajati leaders at a hotel in the Capital on Saturday.

“Nothing really happened. We just met for refreshments,” said Prithvi Subba Gurung. During the meeting, the party establishment urged the dissident leaders not to defect to any Janajati or Madhesi party yet to be formed but to accept the proposal floated by the UML.

Janajati leaders responded that the party, instead of addressing their demands, was strategically piling pressure on them to defect. The differences of opinion between the Janajati and Madhesi leaders and the UML establishment reached a tipping point when the party sought clarification from dissident leaders over their decision to join a national gathering of Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities and to launch a nationwide campaign for single identity-based federalism.


Source: http://www.ekantipur.com/2012/07/08/national/uml-top-brass-in-talks-to-pacify-dissidents/356784/