The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) has decided to stand against the Millennium Challenge Corporation-Nepal Compact, as the government which it is part of prepares to table the US grant in Parliament.

“No agenda can be moved forward in the House until obstructions continue,” Dev Gurung, chief whip of the Maoist Centre said after a meeting of the Parliamentary Party on Wednesday, referring to obstructions of House proceedings by the main opposition CPN-UML. “The meeting decided to stick to its earlier position to stand against the compact.”

Gurung is also a member of the Business Advisory Committee, which is holding a meeting to set the agenda for discussions for the House.

A senior Maoist leader told the Post that if Nepali Congress tables the MCC compact in the House without the consent from the alliance partners, the Maoist Center will quit the government then and there.

“Our decision is clear. We are against its tabling. There should be broader national consensus. If that doesn’t happen, we will pull out of the coalition,” the leader said.

Gurung said that the Parliamentary Party meeting on Wednesday also decided that the MCC compact should not be tabled without amendments to some of its provisions, something the MCC headquarters has flatly ruled out multiple times.

The party has decided to start protests if the government tables the compact without amendments.

“The meeting has concluded that the MCC compact cannot be tabled in Parliament in its present form,” Rekha Sharma, a Maoist Centre lawmaker and the party’s another representative in the Business Advisory, told the Post. “We will present the party’s position at the BAC meeting later today. We will start protests in the House and in the streets if it is tabled without revision.”

The meeting has also concluded that there has to be a consensus among the parties on the MCC compact and the UML’s obstructions must be lifted for the tabling of the compact in the House.

“Our party can even quit the government if the government presents the MCC compact by force and tries to ratify it,” Shama said.

Prime Minister and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba said on Tuesday that the MCC compact will be tabled at Wednesday’s House meeting and that he had already spoken with Speaker Agni Sapkota in that regard.

The House meeting has been scheduled at 1pm.