Stitching up electoral alliance is biggest challenge facing Madhes-centric parties

KATHMANDU, AUG 28 -

As political forces weigh up options and formulate their strategies for the upcoming Constituent Assembly polls, stitching up an electoral alliance is the single largest challenge faced by the Madhes-centric parties.

The Madhesi parties have reached such a conclusion following their preliminary assessments based on several rounds of field visits. Leaders maintain that if the Madhes parties can unite during the polls, the possibility of non-Madhesi parties faring well in the election will diminish in the Madhes. “My assessment from the ground is that if the Madhesi parties manage their divisions they will give tough fights to the non-Madhesi parties in the Madhes,” said Jitendra Sonar, joint-general secretary of Tarai Madhes Loktantrik Party (TMLP).

Echoing Sonar, Chairman of Sadbhawana Party Rajendra Mahato maintained that it was very important for the Madhes parties to forge an electoral alliance . “Forging an alliance for the election is a big challenge faced by the Madhesi parties,” said Mahato. He said that his party was open to forge a poll tie-up with any like-minded Madhes-centric party.

Such remarks from Madhesi leaders come at a time when other major parties have also plan to focus on the Madhes. While the UCPN (Maoist) has assessed that it will relatively perform better in the Madhes than the Hill in comparison to the last CA polls, the Nepali Congress is also concentrating on the region, its traditional bastion, where it did not fare well in 2008. An internal assessment of the NC points out that to emerge as the largest party in the polls, the party has to regain the Madhes. Even the CPN-UML has launched a Madhes-centric campaign.

Senior leaders from the UCPN (M), including Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, are mulling over contesting the polls from the Madhes. In such a situation, pressure mounts on the Madhes-centric parties to formulate a clear strategy. In line with their strategies of contesting polls together, the TMLP and the Bijaya Gachhadar-led Madhesi Janadhikar Forum-Loktantrik are thinking of seat adjustment.

However, political observers point out that in addition to maintaining unity, the Madhesi parties will also have to look for new slogans. “Even though they are focusing on federalism and inclusion, these may not suffice as the parties had raised the same slogans in the last CA election,” remarked analyst Chandrakishore.

The Madhesi parties are planning to make these two issues their top election agenda, saying that both are ‘unfinished tasks’ as the last CA could not promulgate a new constitution.

CPN-Maoist bloc to make last-ditch effort for talks

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The 33-party alliance led by the CPN-Maoist is making a last-ditch attempt to give continuity to the talks with the major political parties.

Holding a meeting on Tuesday, the fringe parties’ bloc discussed whether President Ram Baran Yadav should be requested to end the current political crisis concerning the CA election scheduled for November 19.

The Mohan Baidya-led party and its allies will call for a facilitator between the poll-shy parties and the four major forces for a talks breakthrough. In the meeting, the majority of the parties said that it would be too early to launch a decisive struggle as the talks have not broken up completely. CPN-M leaders were positive about giving continuity to the dialogue, but remained unsure about a breakthrough.

“The talks should be our priority till the end as we are not against the election. But I don’t think the four parties will be ready to backtrack as they are under immense foreign pressure,” said CPN-M General Secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa.

The alliance also discussed about the possibility of holding a dialogue with the government as its leaders preferred the latter to the political parties during the talks earlier. The breakaway faction of the UCPN (Maoist) and some of its allies are in favour of launching a stern protest programme before September 26 to obstruct the election candidate registration process. The Election Commission has set September 26 as the date for candidate registration. The meeting has assigned CPN-M Secretary Dev Gurung to finalise protest programmes. Gurung refused to give any details about the proposed agitation, claiming that they will make it public once internal preparations are over.

“The meeting will endorse a fresh nationwide protest programme tomorrow (Wednesday). The protest will be launched from early September,” said Pasang Sherpa, chairman of the Social Democratic Party.

Meanwhile, the CPN-M has begun a youth march-past in major cities to warn not to hold the CA polls by sidelining them.

UML election preparations intensify

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The CPN-UML has said that it will further intensify preparations for the upcoming Constituent Assembly election.

“We have realised the urgency of changing the power equation that emerged after the 2008 Constituent Assembly election. With this conclusion, our party’s prime goal will be to secure majority seats and guarantee two-thirds majority of democratic forces to draft a federal democratic republic constitution,” said UML General Secretary Ishwor Pokharel.

UML insiders claim the party will forge an electoral alliance with the parties like Nepali Congress and CPN-ML. They say a democratic constitution is unlikely to be drafted again if the new CA lacks two-thirds majority of like-minded parties.

A Central Committee meeting of UML scheduled for August 30 may launch two campaigns—one in the Madhes and ‘UML with Voters’ in the rest areas—to gain public support.

The party believes its previous stand to adopt federalism with multiple identities, its role in the disbanded CA election and the proposals it put forth in the previous CA election were timely and relevant.

In the previous polls, the party had proposed direct-elected prime minister as head of the government and ceremonial president, while it had strongly lobbied for multiple identity based federalism in the CA.

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