A meeting of top four leaders – Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, Maoist chairman Prachanda, CPN-UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal and Nepali Congress (Democratic) president Sher Bahadur Deuba – today decided to divide the 48 seats in the interim parliament amongst the eight parties.

The meeting held at PM’s residence in Baluwatar this afternoon arrived at a consensus to allocate 10 seats each to the NC, UML and the Maoists, 6 seats to NC-D and 3 each to People’s Front Nepal, Nepal Workers and Peasants Party, Nepal Sadbhawana Party (Anandi Devi) and United Left Front.

There was no immediate reaction from the four smaller parties regarding the decision of the meeting.

Similar understanding had been reached earlier but differences emerged after the smaller parties demanded equal share in the 48 seats while NC-D’s Deuba went on to claim seats at par with the NC, UML and Maoists.

The parties will furnish the list of their candidates to the Prime Minister by January 14.

The seven parties will retain the seats they have in the existing House of Representatives (HoR) – Nepali Congress has 75, CPN (UML) 73, NC (Democratic) 42 and other smaller parties have 19 while the Maoists will have 73 seats in the 330-member interim legislative and the 48 seats will be shared amongst the eight parties.

The four top leaders also discussed the allocation of portfolios in the would-be interim cabinet as well as the procedure to promulgate the interim constitution, which is slated for January 15. The interim parliament will be formed on the same the same day followed by the announcement of the interim constitution. The leaders also agreed to present the draft interim constitution at the House for discussion.

At the meeting, UML general secretary Nepal proposed for continuation of Subash Nemwang and Chitra Lekha Yadav as the speaker and deputy speaker of the interim parliament also. There was, however, no understanding on Nepal’s proposal, it is learnt.