Nepali major parties reach deal on power sharing

Kathmandu, May 3 (Xinhua-ANI): In a dramatic and positive development in Nepali politics, the major political parties have reached a deal on power sharing and are formalizing the agreement on Thursday.

Under the deal, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai will dissolve his cabinet Thursday afternoon and formally request the political parties to form a national consensus government as agreed in the seven-point deal signed on Nov. 1 last year, the Republica daily reported.

The national consensus government, which is likely to comprise a 11-15 member cabinet, will be formed within the next two days.

The parties have also agreed that Prime Minister Bhattarai will resign once the parties reach an agreement on all the contentious issues of the constitution and a government led by the Nepali Congress (NC) will promulgate the constitution.

"A NC-led national unity government will be formed after agreement is reached on the new constitution and before it is promulgated," said NC General Secretary Krishna Prasad Sitaula, quoted by the newspaper.

The NC leader played a key role in brokering the deal, along with the ruling Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (UCPN-M) Chairman Prachanda.

Technically, the prime minister is likely to resign after the Constitutional Committee of the Constituent Assembly (CA) prepares the final draft of the constitution and before the full CA endorses it.

Emerging from a meeting of the three major parties-UCPN-M, NC, the Communist Party Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) -- - and the United Madhesi Democratic Front, leaders expressed confidence that a national unity government could be formed within 24 hours.

CPN-UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal was quoted as saying on Wednesday, "We are going to ink an agreement on power sharing tomorrow and are planning to form a national consensus government, possibly by tomorrow." (Xinhua-ANI)