Chairman of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) Prachanda has said that they are not saying they should lead the interim government.

Earlier, politburo member of the party, Matrika Yadav, had said that Maoist should lead the interim government.

In an interview this morning with Milan Timilsina in Kaya Kairan, a current affairs radio programme of Communication Corner, Prachanda said, “What Matrika has said is theoretical and he had talked only about the international trend,” adding, “We are not claiming leadership in the interim government.”

He further said that they will discuss their role in the interim government to give progressive outlet to the country during the talks with the government.

“We will not participate in the coalition government of the seven party alliance but participate in the interim government formed after political conference,” Prachanda added.

He expressed dissatisfaction over the delay in the talk process and said, “We suspect that the delay might be a ploy of the seven political parties to give credit of the achievement of the people’s movement to themselves.”

On recent proclamation of the parliament, Prachanda said, “The proclamation will contribute for the democratic movement of the country so we supported it, but if it is considered that the goal is achieved with this proclamation, it will not help to resolve the current problems of the country.”

He said that the environment for talk is positive this time as compared to previous two round of talks as the main political agenda for talk was already fixed and the country is moving towards unconditional election of the constituent assembly.

He however cautioned that some foreign power centers, which are against the 12-point understanding between parties and Maoists, are trying to disturb the environment for talks, and added that all people should be cautious in this regard to make the talks successful.

On the issue of extortion, Maoist Supremo said that they are collecting donations to feed thousands of their cadres, but strictly ruled that they are extorting people. He said that they had taken back extortion threats made by their cadres, but did not state any instances.

However, quiet contrary to his claim, Maoists have been extorting large amount of money from many industries forcing them to closure.

On the threat to independent media of the country, Prachanda said that they did not have such policy against media and added they will investigate any cases of threat issued against independent media by their fraternal organizations.

He further said that there is a need of mediation of the United Nations or any other international agencies to hold the election of the constituent assembly in a free and fair manner.