Nepal Maoist leader regrets Constituent Assembly chaos

Nepal's main opposition Unified CPN (Maoist) Wednesday expressed regrets over the fracas and vandalism in the Constituent Assembly early Tuesday over continuing differences on drafting the country's new constitution.

UCPN (Maoist) chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as Prachanda, expressed regrets over Tuesday's incidents in the Constituent Assembly, and said it was not intentional and planned. He also assured that such incidents would not be repeated.

Dahal's response came after widespread criticism over the ruckus in the assembly.

The Constituent Assembly early Tuesday turned into a battleground after opposition parties disrupted an assembly meeting and attacked lawmakers from the ruling parties, resulting in injuries to a dozen security personnel.

Lawmakers from opposition parties, led by UCPN (Maoist), began shouting and vandalizing infrastructure when CA chairman Nembang asked Nepali Congress chief whip Chinkaji Shrestha to form a panel to initiate a voting process for the settlement of contentious issues.

Nepali lawmakers were Wednesday set to miss a self-imposed deadline Jan 22 for promulgation of the country's new constitution after major political parties in Nepal -- the ruling Nepali Congress and alliance partner CPN-UML as also the main opposition Unified CPN (Maoist) and a bagful of Madhesh-based parties failed to reach a consensus on key issues eluding a resolution.

The contentious issues of the envisaged constitution are those relating to the federal structure, form of government, electoral system and the design of the judiciary.

With no new constitution within sight, a blame game has now broken out.

At a press conference Wednesday, Dahal accused Prime Minister Sushil Koirala of playing a "villainous" role in spoiling the whole process.

The UCPN (Maoist) leader accused Koirala of obstructing the consensus among parties on sticky issues regarding the new constitution.

Dahal said the incident took place as the ruling parties had mistaken the Maoists' "flexibility" as a "weakness".

However, former prime minister and senior UML leader Jhala Nath Khanal blamed the Maoists and their leadership for taking hostage the constitution-framing process.

Political analysts here said it was difficult to predict the situation after Jan 22 and they were not sure whether the confrontation will continue or there would be a compromise after that.