The government has formed a dialogue team to engage with controversial businessman Durga Prasain’s Nation, Nationality, Religion, Culture and Citizens’ Protection Campaign, Nepal, purportedly to create an environment conducive for the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The talks team is led by Minister for Communication and Information Technology Jagadish Kharel, according to Ajaya Bhadra Khanal, chief adviser to Prime Minister Sushila Karki.

The committee includes Khanal himself and the prime minister’s public relations adviser Govind Narayan Timilsina as members.

Following the committee’s formation, the prime minister’s chief personal secretary Adarsha Kumar Shrestha on Sunday sent a formal letter to Prasain’s ‘campaign’ requesting it to nominate three representatives for the dialogue.

The decision comes ahead of a previously agreed meeting scheduled for December 17 to discuss demands raised by Prasain during earlier talks held on December 8 at the prime minister’s office.

Khanal, however, indicated that the previously scheduled December 17 meeting may now be postponed, as the government seeks first to narrow down the campaign’s demands and assess which ones are feasible.

“There are political demands raised by the Prasain group that can only be addressed through a political process, which is elections,” Khanal said. “The government is trying to identify demands that are realistic and see whether some of them can be addressed.”

Meanwhile, another group close to Prasain has already registered a political party to contest the March 5 elections. The party, named Nagarik Bachau Dal, is led by Madav Kalpit, Prasain’s former personal secretary, while Prasain has been named its patron.

While one faction aligned with Prasain is preparing to contest elections, the campaign, led by Prasain himself, continues its activism independently.

One of the campaign’s core demands has been the waiver of bank loans up to Rs2 million, a demand the government says cannot be addressed. However, Khanal said the government is considering returning Rs100,000 to victims of crisis-ridden cooperatives to partially address the campaign’s demands.

Prasain, who has a controversial background with associations with the Maoists, the CPN-UML and later to royalist groups, has been organising thousands of people, who claim to have been victimised by credit cooperatives, micro-finance and banks due to their “unreasonable interest rates”. He has led several protests in their support.

The current government first initiated talks with Prasain’s group on November 12 at the Ministry of Home Affairs, after the campaign announced nationwide protests beginning November 23.

The group submitted a 27-point demand that included the abolition of the present constitution, restoration of monarchy and sweeping reforms in the banking sector.

The Karki-led government—formed after the Gen Z protests in September that toppled the Congress-UML coalition government led by KP Sharma Oli—has been engaging with various agitating groups amid concerns that unrest could affect the election environment.

Home Minister Om Prakash Aryal held the first round of talks with the campaign’s representatives. However, on November 18, just a week after the dialogue, Prasain was detained by authorities on the charge of harming public safety.

After Prasain was taken into custody, talks were held between the government and Prasain group on November 22. The meeting decided that the group’s addressable agenda could be fulfilled under a 10-points. Based on the decision the group which had announced the nationwide protest starting from November 23 was revoked.

On Monday the Prasain group also formed a three member dialogue committee according to the press release signed by Prasain. The dialogue committee of the group will be led by Premdip Limbu with Devi Prasad Sangraula and Prem Thapa Magar members.

Among the campaign’s most controversial demands is the nationalisation of all banks and financial institutions, citing an estimated Rs3.4 trillion allegedly at risk due to lending practices involving major business houses. The campaign has also demanded the immediate removal of around 600,000 individuals from banks’ blacklists.

An official at the prime minister’s office said most of the campaign’s demands are unrealistic and cannot be addressed, but dialogue is being pursued to maintain stability in the run-up to the elections.

“Keeping the election in mind, the government is engaging with various agitating groups to prevent any situation that could disrupt the election environment,” the official said.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet meeting held on Monday also formed a high-level political dialogue committee to hold talks with various political parties and stakeholders.

The meeting formed the political dialogue committee under the coordination of Law Minister Anil Sinha. According to Ram Bahadur Rawal, the press coordinator of the prime minister, the committee formed on Sunday to hold dialogue with the Prasain group is different from the committee formed on Monday.

The committee formed on Monday includes Minister for Communication Kharel and Khanal, the chief advisor of the prime minister, as members.

The high-level political dialogue committee’s major objective is to hold talks and dialogue and create a conducive political environment and ensure the smooth conduct of the elections, Rawal said.