At a time when the top leaders of eight parties have not been able to sit formally to decide the next course for the nation in the backdrop of certain postponement of the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, a senior cabinet minister has said that the lingering differences among the eight parties have created obstacle in the process of fixing fresh poll date.

Speaking at a programme in Kerabari of Morang district where she attended golden jubilee celebration of Machhindra higher secondary school, Foreign Minister Sahana Pradhan revealed that in a few recent discussions among eight parties, they demonstrated lack of clarity regarding the purpose for which the CA polls should be held.

Her remarks have come at a time when the Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) and the Maoists have stepped up their demands to go for outright declaration of republic through the parliament ahead of CA polls. “If we now wait for the CA elections to abolish monarchy, the elections might never be held. The history of 1950 could repeat,” Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, senior Maoist leader, had said.

The Maoists have already declared that they are going to unleash peaceful agitation from the third week of May if the parliament does not declare republic by then.

The demands by UML and Maoists, however, have not impressed the Nepali Congress (NC) whose president Girija Prasad Koirala leads the current coalition government. NC general secretary and Peace and Reconstruction Minister Ram Chandra Poudel has said that past decision to decide the fate of monarchy through the first meeting of elected CA cannot be violated. As differences among NC, UML and Maoists linger on, the crucial meeting of the eight parties has not taken place yet.