Other political parties have fewer options other than to support the government led by Maoist leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai. He is our official candidate. Given the present political scenario, other parties will support us. Our party has made it clear that Nepal needs a national consensus government and the government should be under our leadership. We are now in a very crucial time as the tenure of the Constituent Assembly is ending in less than two weeks and we have to take major decisions on all important matters. We have the limitation of time.


The resignation of prime minister Jhala Nath Khanal has paved the way for the formation of a national consensus government to conclude the peace process and draft the new constitution. As the largest party of the Constituent Assembly, the UCPN-Maoist should be given the responsibility to form the next government. Our party has already chosen Dr. Baburam Bhattarai as a candidate for the prime minister. I hope all parties will support our candidate to lead the national consensus government.


Our past experiences have shown that it will be impossible to write the constitution and complete the peace process without the support of UCPN-Maoist. We have already discussed the issue of forming the national consensus government with Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Madhesh based parties. All of them have shown positive indications. I would like to reiterate that UCPN-Maoist participation is important in completing peace process and writing the new constitution.


Although we have made all out efforts to complete the peace process and constitution writing, other parties have not supported us. We signed the five-point deal last May aiming to complete the peace process and promulgating the new constitution. A sub-committee chaired by our party leader comrade Prachanda sorted out a number of problems. Despite our willingness to promulgate the new constitution, nobody supported us.


So far as the completion of peace process is concerned, we have often expressed the commitment that we are ready to complete the integration process under certain modality. Our party has already said that we can find out possible modality, number and rank of the combatants in the course of integration.


We are ready to unveil a time-bound action plan for the integration and rehabilitation of our combatants if other parties agree to form a national consensus government under our leadership. If we are deprived of the chance to take the government leadership, progress in peace and constitution writing will remain a far cry.  Our party is very flexible on the integration issue. We have already shown optimum level of flexibility in the process of integration including regrouping.


We have already communicated this message during informal talks with Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Madhes-based parties in the recent days. We are also ready to bring a time-bound action plan on the integration and rehabilitation of combatants to win the trust of other parties.


As the largest party in the Constituent Assembly (CA), only a national consensus government under the leadership of party vice-chairman Baburam Bhattarai will settles the problems. We will talk with other political parties in this matter. Our chairman comrade has also conveyed the message that only Dr. Baburam Bhattarai can make it clear. Our party has concluded that the majority government cannot solve the problems and it will not be conducive to peace and constitution writing process. This is the reason we are in favour of a national consensus government. Given the present political scenario and negotiations, Dr. Baburam Bhattarai will lead the next national consensus government. We will be able to install the national consensus government before the August 21 deadline set by president.


If other parties agree to support our candidate Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, minimum understanding on the peace and constitution writing processes is possible. Our party’s informal talks with the other parties, and later on, the formal talks, will begin within a couple of days.


Our main aim is to form either a consensus or a majority government. If other parties try to form a government by bypassing our party, there will be no alternative but to initiate a struggle.

(Bogati is Maoist leader and Minister of Communication and Information. As told to New Spotlight)