Top brass leaders of left alliance turned down PM Sher Bahadur Deuba's proposal to fix temporary provincial capital and appoint provincial chiefs during a meeting of five parties in Baluwatar on Thursday.

The meeting was summoned by PM Deuba. Government had prepared to fix provincial capital and appoint provincial chiefs in the Cabinet meeting if consensus was reached during the meeting. The meeting was attended by top brass leaders of left alliance apart from CPN-UML Chief KP Sharma Oli.

Rastriya Janata Party Nepal (RJPN) leader Rajendra Mahato said leaders had expressed their opinions after PM proposed for a political consensus. Nepali Congress leader Ram Chandra Poudel said government should continue with fixing capitals and appointing chiefs.

CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal suggested holding National Assembly election at the earliest, an opinion also echoed by UML and RJPN leaders. UML leaders also said there was no need to wait until February 8 for National Assembly election.

Poudel said PM responded by saying February 8 was the date proposed by Election Commission and he would discuss with EC for holding election to a prior date.

CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, leader Ram Bahadur Thapa, Narayan Kaji Shrestha, CPN-UML leaders Subas Nembang, Bhim Rawal, Agni Kharel, Nepali Congress (NC) leaders Ram Chandra Poudel, Shashank Koirala, Bijay Kumar Gachhadhar, Rastriya Janata Party coordinator Mahanta Thakur, Rajendra Mahato among other leaders are taking part in the meeting called by NC President and PM Deuba.

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.