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Nepal to hold Constituent assembly poll

       Kathmandu/Kolkata: The House of Representatives in Nepal on Sunday unanimously (without need for voting) passed a resolution calling for election to set up a constituent assembly to write a new Constitution for the country. The motion was tabled in the House on Friday on behalf of GP Koirala, then new Prime Minister-designate, who could not attend the House that day due to ill-health. Earlier on Sunday, Koirala, also Nepali Congress party president, was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Nepal for the fifth time. Koirala took the oath of office and sworn in by king Gyanendra at Narayanhiti palace. He declined to take a separate oath to become memeber of the Rajparishad, ie the royal privy council, as the SPA had already decided to scrap the body, a customary assembly of pro-palace personalities nominated by the king to advise him.

     Last week, 84-year old Koirala was appointed the Prime Minister by Nepal's King Gyanendra after the Seven-Party Alliance unanimously proposed his name for the top post as per the king's proclamation recalling the parliament he issued yielding to anti-monarchy protests by the Alliance. Today's oath-taking ceremony was postponed due to Koirala's ill-health on Friday when the parliament met first time after four years. Koirala was suffering from bronchitis. However, in a notice to parliament which convened for the first time in four years on Friday, Koirala proposed elections for the assembly to draw up a new Constitution, hold talks with Maoist rebels and declare a ceasefire. The second sitting on the parliament was held today at 4 pm.

     Meanwhile, According to sources, Nepal Communist Party-UML has decided to join the all-party government. Party's senior politburo member KP Oli is likely to lead the party in the new cabinet. Earlier on Saturday, an extreme Left-wing party of India, Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), rapped the Communist parties in Nepal for derailing the establishment of a Communist government in the Himalayan Kingdom. SUCI, which claims to be the real Communists based on the ideologies of Carl Marx and Lenin, took out a rally in Kolkata to protest what it termed the "opportunism" of the seven-party alliance in Nepal in striking a deal with the monarchy. SUCI alleged a complete victory for the mass movement was in sight for abolition of monarchy and restoration of democracy in the Himalayan Kingdom but for the seven-party alliance. "They demanded establishment of constituent assembly to adopt democratic constitution and on the basis of that establishment of a republican government. When this demand was on the verge of achievement at that times the opportunist leadership of Nepal and the pseudo-Marxist leadership of Nepal in connivance with US imperialism and Indian monopoly capital, they backstabbed the movement and made a deal with the monarchy and by that backstabbed the movement. We condemn it. We further condemn the role of CPI-M. They acted as the representative of the Indian monopoly houses and the US imperialism and they worked a broker in backstabbing this movement," said Pravash Ghosh, General Secretary of SUCI. Ghosh also criticised the role played by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), who brokered a peace deal for the revival of Parliament and an end to the 18-day old shut down in world's one of the poorest countries.