After returning home from a foreign trip, Agriculture Minister Mahesh Acharya Thursday called on Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and president of the ruling Nepali Congress Girija Prasad Koirala to exercise restraint and save the ruling Party from an imminent split.

Achaarya met Girija Prasad Koirala and also addressed a letter to him expressing his concerns with a copy of the letter sent to Deuba, party sources said.

Acharya, a Koirala protégé, blamed both the government and the party for the escalation in the party conflict over differences between Deuba and Koirala on whether to extend an emergency to contain a communist rebellion that has claimed more than 4000 lives in more than six years.

Deuba defied Koirala and extended the emergency that lapsed Saturday for another three months and ordered snap polls on November 13 by dissolving parliament. Deuba and Koirala have been exchanging personal abuses blaming each for the most serious crisis in the ruling party in 12 years.

Acharya called for unity and de-escalation of the rhetoric. Significantly, Acharya has not resigned from the government as ordered by Koirala; 34 other ministers have defied Koirala and sided with Deuba.

Former home minister Ram Chandra Paudel continued his attempts to reconcile the differences  between Deuba and Koirala Thursday.