Prime Minister Sushila Karki has started meeting with party leaders individually in order to create an environment for the March elections.

Karki has held several rounds of official and unofficial talks with different party leaders in the past but she has yet to meet top-tier leaders like Sher Bahadur Deuba, KP Sharma Oli, and Pushpa Kamal Dahal. An aide to the prime minister said she will discuss separately with other party leaders gradually.

On Thursday, she held talks with second-tier leaders of the CPN-UML including party secretary Shankar Pokharel, Deputy General Secretary Pradeep Gyawali and former chief whip Mahesh Bartaula and Chairman of the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party Mahantha Thakur separately about the March elections.

At a time when the UML is insisting on the restoration of Parliament and has filed a case at the Supreme Court, the prime minister summoned the UML leaders and urged them to take part in the elections, said the UML leaders. The UML has not decided officially to participate in the elections while the largest party in the dissolved House, the Nepali Congress, has made a decision to be a part of the parliamentary vote.

The UML, however, has registered itself at the Election Commission for the purpose of participating in the upcoming National Assembly election and the March snap polls.

On Thursday, Karki urged the UML leaders to support the House of Representatives election while UML leaders said they are still not convinced about the vote happening in March.

UML leaders maintain that since an investigation commission led by Gauri Bahadur Karki has restricted the movement of the party chair, Oli, the government’s very resolve to hold the polls is questionable.

The government has formed a commission to investigate incidents related to the September Gen Z protests. The commission has placed restrictions on the movement of then-home minister Ramesh Lekhak, retired Inspector General of Nepal Police Chandra Kuber Khapung, former chief of the Intelligence Department Hutraj Thapa and the then chief district officer of Kathmandu. At least 78 people were killed during the Gen Z protests.

Oli and Lekhak cannot leave Kathmandu Valley nor fly abroad without the commission’s permission.

Though UML leaders earlier held talks with Prime Minister Karki together with other party representatives, Thursday is the first time they met separately.

Bartaula said they urged the prime minister to create an environment conducive to holding the elections.

“We take it positively that the prime minister invited us for a discussion. She said the parties should cooperate,” Bartaula said. “We have had a long struggle for democracy. We do not refuse to go to the people. We do not oppose it. We are only asking for an environment for an election.”

The UML leaders urged the prime minister to ensure that escaped prisoners and stolen weapons are brought back.

UML leaders said they were not opposed to the elections but only wanted a conducive environment for the polls. “The UML is a party that likes to go to the people. We are seeking an environment for the election,” Bartaula said.

The UML leaders also raised the issue of alleged media trials against Oli.

“We made it clear that the restriction itself shows that an environment for the elections has not been created,” said Bartaula. “But there was no response from her [Karki] to this.”

Elections cannot be held by restricting the movement of the chair of a party with a huge support base, he argued.

The UML leaders had also raised the issue of constitutionality of the Karki government. There is no environment for voters to visit polling stations without fear, they told the prime minister.

In response, PM Karki reportedly said that the government was concerned and that the political parties must cooperate for the election.

Earlier in the day, Karki and Mahantha Thakur, chair of the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party Nepal, discussed the elections.

Karki requested Thakur to play an active role in creating a conducive environment for the polls.

Thakur said that they are preparing for the election and discussing possible alliances. “We are clear. We must participate in the election, and we will,” the prime minister’s private secretariat quoted Thakur as saying. “Election is now the only way out.”