Nepal crisis: President calls for consensus

Nepali President Ram Baran Yadav on Sunday asked Prime Minister Prachanda to seek consensus over the sacking of the army chief amid deepening political crisis as a key coalition partner decided to withdraw support to the government.

The Nepal premier earlier fired army chief General Rukmangad Katawal for defying government orders but he shot back rejecting the decision, plunging the country into a fresh political crisis despite repeated calls from India for a rapprochement.

President Yadav, who is the supreme commander of the army, asked Prachanda to follow constitutional provisions and seek consensus among the political parties on the unilateral sacking General Rukmangad Katawal.

In a significant development, the CPN-UMLs Standing Committee meeting on Sunday decided to withdraw support to the government and called back all its members from the cabinet headed by Prachanda, according to the party office sources.

The decision to pull out from the government by the CPN-UML, whose support is crucial for the Maoist governments survival, has deepened the political crisis with the survival of the coalition in doubt. The UML, with 207 members in the 601 member Constituent Assembly, is the third largest party in the country.

Yadav in a letter to Prachanda asked him to act in accordance with the spirit of the constitution and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and also to forge consensus among political parties while taking a decision regarding the army chief, according to the President press advisor Rajendra Dahal.