Ruling coalition meet to forge consensus on MCC ends inconclusively

A meeting of the ruling coalition held to forge consensus on the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) ended inconclusively on Thursday after the CPN (Maoist Centre) and CPN (Unified Socialist) refused to budge from their stance.

The meeting held for almost three hours failed to forge a common ground on the MCC.

Minister for Communications and Information Technology and government spokesperson Gyanendra Bahadur Karki said that the meeting was focused on tabling the MCC in the Parliament.

All the parties floated their views on the MCC in the meeting.

The meeting will be held again at 10 am tomorrow to make a decision on the compact.

According to a source, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba was in favour of tabling the MCC in tomorrow's Parliament meeting at any cost.

"There is no alternative to tabling the MCC in the Parliament," Karki said as PM Deuba saying.

In response, CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Nepal said that the MCC cannot be tabled in the existing form.

They said that it would be better to table the compact in the Parliament after the local level elections.

Prime Minister and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba, Nepali Congress General Secretary Gagan Thapa, leader Krishna Sitaula, spokesperson Prakash Sharan Mahat, Law Minister Dilendra Prasad Badu, Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki, Maoist Centre Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, leader Narayankaji Shrestha, CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Nepal, leader Jhalanath Khanal, Janata Samajbadi Party Federal Council Chairman Baburam Bhattarai, and Rajendra Shrestha were present in the meeting.

Meanwhile, Janamorcha was not invited in the meeting.