The Constitution Drafting Committee is preparing to submit the Bill of the constitution to Constituent Assembly Chairman Subas Nembang on Friday, even as the Special Committee of the senior leaders failed to reach a consensus on key constitutional issues including the demarcation of the federal provinces.

CDC members said they were not in a position to wait for the senior leaders to arrive at consensus any longer.

 “We cannot wait time and again. There is no other option but to submit the Bill to the CA chairman within the deadline,” said CDC member Ramesh Lekhak.

He said that any agreements that are made after Friday would be include in the Bill through amendment.

Despite several rounds of meetings, the major political parties are still divided over key issues such as demarcation of provinces, religion, re-appointment of members of constitutional bodies and election threshold.

The major parties, which had earlier agreed to federate the country into a six-province model, are in a fix after the agreement sparked protests across the country.

The people in the Mid-Western Region are protesting the deal, demanding that the region should be declared a separate province. The proposed six-province model has divided Mid-West into Province 5 and Province 6. Likewise, the people from Karnali zone, which falls in the Mid-West, have demanded that Karnali must be declared a separate province.

Tharu community in Kailai and Kanchapur districts of the proposed Province 6 are also in protest demanding a separate Tharu state.

In their bid to pacify the protesters, the  UCPN (Maoist) has proposed adopting a seven-province model, previously proposed by the ruling Nepali Congress and CPN-UML.

The main opposition has proposed a separate Karnali province and undivided Far-Western Region as demanded by the locals.

To address the demands of Tharu community for a separate province, leaders are also considering a special Tharu autonomous state in Far-West.

The UML and some leaders from NC have responded to the proposal positively, but Prime Minister Koirala walked out of the meeting immediately after the proposal was floated on Wednesday. He did show up in Thursday’s meeting, citing conflicting schedule.

“We were holding serious consultation on how to incorporate the people’s feedback and we were close to arriving at conclusion. But since the prime minister was absent in the meeting, things did not go ahead as planned,” said UCPN (Maoist) leader Baburam Bhattarai, who also the head the Special Committee.

Meanwhile, the UML has asked the prime minister to play a responsible role at this critical juncture of promulgating new constitution.  “No leaders should be irresponsible at this moment,” UML General Secretary Ishwor Pokharel said.