Nepali parties agree to form 'national govt'
A group of Nepalese political parties has agreed to form a "national government" a day after Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal resigned.
After a meeting in Kathmandu, members of the Communist UML party agreed to head the government.
The parties have been given five days by Nepal's President Ram Baran Yadav to form the government.
Dahal, best known as Prachanda, resigned after the president opposed his decision to sack the army chief.
The Maoists boycotted the all-party meeting.
They said unless the president apologised, they would not let parliament function.
Correspondents say Prachanda's resignation has pushed Nepal into a fresh political crisis following an election win by the Maoists last year.
"We want the Maoists to join the government too. But if they don't join, we can still form a majority government," senior Nepali Congress party leader Ram Sharan Mahat told the BBC.
UML leader Jhala Nath Khanal said that the Maoists "gave us the offer to lead the government and we have agreed".
Earlier Nepal President urged the political parties to form a new government within the next five days.
In a letter furnished to the parliament secretariat, Dr. Yadav asked the parties to form the government with consensus among political parties represented at the Constituent Assembly within Saturday.
Political parties have begun their discussion to form a new coalition government a day after Dahal resigned.
Constituent Assembly members of the Unified CPN (Maoist) have decided not to allow any business of the parliament until Dr. Yadav apologises for his move to 'reinstate' the army chief before the House.
Maoist cadres have organised rallies and demonstrations in various parts of the country in demanding the withdrawal of the President's move.
Police have arrested dozens of civil society activists from a sit-in programme in front of the Presidential palace, Shital Niwas.
However, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has voiced sadness over the turn of events that led to the resignation of Prachanda.
In a statement attributable to his spokesperson, Ban said he is saddened by developments leading to this resignation. However, he is also "encouraged by the Maoist party's assurances of its commitment to the peace process, including continued participation in the drafting of a new Constitution."
He appealed for the strict adherence to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2006, especially the Agreement on Monitoring of the Management of Arms and Armies (AMMAA), which stipulates clear and specific restrictions on the Nepal Army and the Maoist combatants.
Parties held emergency talks on setting up a new coalition government after Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal's sudden resignation Monday plunged this Himalayan nation into political crisis.
Nepal only emerged in 2006 from a decade of civil war that claiming thousands of lives.
Dahal, also known by his nom de guerre, "Prachanda," or "the fierce one," stood down in a dispute with President Ram Baran Yadav over firing the country's military chief. Dahal wanted him fired because of his refusal to enlist former Maoist rebels into the military, but Yadav overruled that decision.
Tens of thousands of opposing demonstrators took to the streets Monday, but the situation was calmer Tuesday.
Hundreds of police were deployed around the president's office and detained about 40 protesters who rallied there in violation of a ban against protests in some sensitive areas of the city, police official Govind Pathak said.
Dahal's Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) is the largest party in parliament but it does not have a clear majority. His resignation pulled his party out of the ruling coalition and collapsed the government.
His former coalition partners now appear most likely to team up against him.
The political parties huddled on Tuesday in Kathmandu. Nepali Congress, the second largest party after the Maoists which is also Yadav's party pledged their support to Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist), the third biggest party, said Ram Sharan Mahat of the Nepali Congress.
These parties would still need the support of other parties to form the new government.
More unrest appears likely. The Maoists have vowed to launch demonstrations and shut down the parliament in protest of the president's actions.
The Maoists fought a bloody 10-year war before joining the political mainstream. They won the most votes during parliamentary elections last year and then abolished the centuries-old monarchy.
Many of the movement's fighters remain confined to UN-monitored barracks. Under a peace accord brokered by the world body, they are meant to be integrated into the military.
In his resignation speech, Dahal accused Yadav of "a fatal attack on the infant democracy." He claimed the president had no power to act as he did without the prior approval of Cabinet.
"The unconstitutional and undemocratic move by the president has pushed the country toward a serious political crisis," Dahal said.
However, Dahal's own decision to fire army chief Rookmangud Katawal, who had resisted the enlistment of former rebels into the military, provoked a revolt in Dahal's coalition prompting his resignation as prime minister.
Meanwhile, India on Monday tightened security along its border with Nepal and urged Kathmandu to resolve peacefully a political crisis which has sparked the resignation of its Maoist prime minister.
India put its troops along the 1,751-kilometre (1,086-mile) border on alert after premier Prachanda quit to protest a move by the president of the Himalayan country to stop his elected government from sacking the army chief.
"Orders have been issued to field formations to heighten their vigil," said a spokesman for the Special Security Bureau paramilitary force.
The Indian foreign ministry meanwhile described the developments as "internal to Nepal".
But it said in a statement: "We wish Nepal well in its transition to a fully democratic polity and would hope that the present crisis is resolved in a manner which contributes to the early conclusion of the peace process." (BBC Online, ANI, AP)
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