Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has called an all-party meeting for Thursday to forge consensus on fixing temporary capitals of seven provinces.

It is learnt that if the consensus is forged in the meeting, the government would announce the date for National Assembly election, appoint province chiefs and fix temporary capitals of all the provinces simultaneously.

With the successful conclusion of parliamentary and provincial elections held in two phases on November 26 and December 7, the government which was preparing to appoint provincial chiefs, back tracked from its move following protest from the leaders of left alliance [CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre)].

The leaders of UML and Maoist Centre have been saying that the new government should appoint province chiefs as per people’s mandate, warning that the lawmakers of the two parties would not take the oath of office and secrecy if the incumbent government appoints province chiefs unilaterally.

The government started seeking consensus bowing to the pressures from other parties to appoint province chiefs in a legal way.

According to the law, the election results of province and House of Representatives should be submitted to President Bidya Devi Bhandari.

Though the Election Commission (EC) has been urging PM Deuba to appoint province chiefs, he [Deuba] started political discussions to forge political consensus only from Tuesday.

He has already held a meeting with Maoist Centre Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal in this end.

According to a source at Baluwatar, “PM will appoint province chiefs as per the understanding among the leaders of parties representing the Parliament, and if the all-party meeting fails to forge consensus, he will appoint apolitical persons as province chiefs.”

Top-notch leaders of Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, Maoist Centre, Rastriya Janata Party (RJP) and Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum Nepal (SSFN) will take part in the meeting scheduled to be held at Baluwatar at 9 am tomorrow.