Chairman Dahal agrees to become PP leader

UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Monday has agreed to assume the post of party's parliamentary party (PP) leader as his supporters pressurised him to take the post.

Party's PP meeting, scheduled to take place on Tuesday, is likely to take unanimous decision about selecting Dahal as PP leader. Dahal was the PP leader in the previous CA too.

As Dahal initially was unwilling to take the job, party leaders pressurised him to take the post saying that the party needs to play a crucial role in the constitution drafting process and thus top leaders should take the leadership.

Party leaders say the Constituent Assembly (CA) and constitution drafting process are the vital part of the peace process and Dahal as signatory of Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) should be the PP leader.

 "After the demise of Girirja Prasad Koirala, it is the duty of our Chairman to complete the constitution drafting process, a vital part of peace process," said Maoist leader Giriraj Mani Pokhrel. "Though we gained third position, our agenda prevails in the CA so there is consensus inside the party that Dahal should lead the process becoming the PP leader."

Earlier, Dahal had proposed the name of his close aide Krishna Bahadur Mahara as PP leader, while senior leader Baburam Bhattarai proposed his close aide Top Bahadur Rayamajhi's name for the same post. Party's former politburo members on Monday also suggested Dahal to become the party's PP leader. But, party's senior leader Baburam Bhattarai is saying that PP leadership should be handed over to the second-rung leaders and top leaders should engage on party building process.

About the government formation process, the Maoist party has said that it would join the government only if a national unity government is formed. Chairman Dahal, during his address at the House session, had urged the NC and CPN-UML to form the government. Party's leaders have also suggested the leadership to not join the government