Sunday, April 13, 2008

Madhesi Movement: Next Moves


पाँच बुँदा, पाँच चुनाव

The 1991 elections saw a Nepali Congress wave. The 2008 elections have seen a Maoist wave. The next wave in the country has to be a Madhesi wave. The Madhesi Movement is far from over.

What to do next?

Step one, consolidate. The three Madhesi parties must stick together as a Madhesi Alliance inside the assembly. They should engage in collective bargaining and get into power collectively. The largest party leads naturally. Upendra Yadav has established himself as the Madhesi leader. Once in power, they should also help mainstream the armed Madhesi groups by engaging in respectful dialogue with them.

Step two, Ek Madhesh, Ek Pradesh. All Terai districts should be put together to form a Terai state in a federal Nepal. Ensuring that is the number one task of the Madhesi Alliance. Also, the three Madhesi parties need to get behind the idea of a directly elected executive presidency for the country. The TMDP and the Sadbhavana are lagging behind on this one. The country needs this for rapid economic growth. Also, turn Nepal into a multi-party democracy of state funded parties. That will make it the number one democracy on the planet.

Step three, census and citizenship. Both these must be taken care of before the next parliamentary elections.

Step four, an electoral pre-poll alliance for the next parliamentary elections based on a formula from the 2008 results. Where one of the three parties won, the other two do not contest. Where none of the three won but one was placed second, the party that got the largest number of votes from among the three gets to contest. Where none of the three parties were either first or second, you compromise. You discuss and decide. It might end up looking a 10:3:1 ratio for the MJF, TMDP, and the Sadbhavana. Goal: the next chief executive of the country after Prachanda has to be Upendra Yadav.

Step five, reaching out to the Dalit, Mahila, Janajati and Pahadi in the Terai. If the three Madhesi parties do not reach out to these groups, they will not grow big enough to hold near total sway in the Terai. But if they reach out, therein will lie the germ of their possible growth in the future also in the hills some day a few election cycles down the line. If the Pahadi parties can be present in the Madhesh, why can't Madhesi led parties hope to expand into the hills and the mountains?

Step six, after turning Nepal into a federal republic of state funded parties, (Proposed Constitution) focus on rapid economic growth like a laser beam. (Mantra: Economic Revolution)

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In The News

Maoists lead with 67 seats; NC wins 21, UML 19, MPRF 10, TMDP 3, NWPP 2, NSP-M 1, PFN 1 Kantipur Madhesi People’s rights Forum (MPRF) candidates Upendra Yadav (Sunsari-5), Om Prakash Yadav (Rupandehi-2), Sarb Dev Prasad Oja (Banke-3), Abhishek Pratap Sah (Kapilvastu-5), Karina Begaam (Parsa-1) and Bijaya Kumar Gachhedar (Morang-7) have won the election. ...... Terai Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP) candidates Brijesh Kumar Gupta (Kapilvastu-3), Hirdayesh Tripathi (Nawalparasi-6) and Dan B Kurmi (Kapilvastu-2) have been elected
Maoists lead with 27 seats; NC win 7, UML 6, NWPP 2, MPRF 1 (8:00)

114 seats declared; Maoists bag 63 seats; UML, NC competing for second place NepalNews Nepali Congress and CPN-UML have pocketed 19 seats and 18 seats respectively and are competing for second place. ..... The Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) has won in nine seats so far with party chairman Yadav Yadav winning from both Sunsari-5 and Morang-5. ..... Terai Madhes Loktantrik Party (TMLP) has bagged two seats while Sadbhawana Party and People's Front (PF) have bagged one seat each.
Prachanda meets Koirala PM Koirala congratulated Prachanda on the success of his party ..... Prachanda on his part appreciated Koirala's role in conducting the polls successfully. ..... leaving Nepali Congress and CPN, the two major partners of the ruling coalition, far behind
India says it is ready work with Maoists the US government has not removed the Maoists from its terrorist watch list.
Morally inappropriate to continue in govt, says MK Nepal "The party had expected that it would win enough seats to be in leadership position," he said, expressing surprise over the results. ..... "One election is the not the end of the road. We will come back," he said.
Prachanda wins from Rolpa-2 as well securing 34,230 votes while UML's Shanta Kumar Oli ended up with 6029 votes.
MJF chief ousts PM's daughter from Sunsari-5; takes Morang-5 also Yadav got 23,939 votes while Sujata finished third with 8,885 votes. .... MJF chairman Yadav also won the election from Morang-5, bagging 27,805 votes while his nearest rival Amrit Aryal of Nepali Congress got 10,324 votes.
MJF candidate arrested with weapons in Malangwa of Sarlahi district .... Ashok Kumar Yadav, MJF candidate in Sarlahi constituency-5, was arrested with five of his supporters after they reportedly started creating a ruckus in front of the District Development Committee office where the vote-counting was going on. They were all found to be drunk.
Home Minister Sitaula, too, bites the dust In Nawalparasi-6 constituency, Hridayesh Tripathy of Terai Madhes Loktantrik Party (TMLP) emerged victorious.




Sarlahi
Constituency No. 4
Winner: Rajendra Mahato | Party: Nepal Shadvawana Party | Vote Count: 18608
Closest Opponent: Ram Chandra raya | Party: TMLP | Vote Count: 9161

Sunsari

Constituency No. 5
Winner: Upendra Yadav | Party: MJF | Vote Count: 23939
Closest Opponent: Mohammad mahfuj Ansari | Party: UML | Vote Count: 9005

Morang
Constituency No. 5
Winner: Upendra Yadav | Party: MJF | Vote Count: 27508
Closest Opponent: Amrit Aryal | Party: NC | Vote Count: 10324



1 comment:

Amit said...

Namaste Paramendra Bhagatji,
I read your article and am really impressed with your views.

The prime reason behind the three Madhesi parties not uniting is, they don't trust each other. MJF is sceptical about TMDP, saying it could be a NC's trap.


There are problems similar to the one in Bihar....the Backward Forward issues....

Anyway as a Madhesi we should try to cleanse them and bring them together.....

I also wanted to ask you the permission to post this article on our website www.terai-news.com

please could you reply me at
amit at terai.news.com