There were formal and informal talks among the political parties, bilateral and trilateral, to draft the constitution. The UCPN (M)-led alliance returned to the parliament, but after there was no agreement on the issues of the constitution, the alliance announced protest programmes. The talks also did not yield any concrete agreements. Then the UCPN (M)-led alliance withdrew small protests and focused on large protest programmes.

Parties in talks
Constitution-drafting process was hindered by the disagreement among the parties. Then RPP (Nepal) urged an all-party meeting of parties in the Constituent Assembly and move forward as per its suggestion. Although the UCPN (M) and other parties decided to boycott the Constituent Assembly and parliamentary committees, Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (Loktantrik) participated in the meeting of the State Affairs Committee. While there was a question of whether to engage in talks with the ruling coalition, Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (Nepal) chairperson Upendra Yadav said nothing will be achieved in the present context.1 However, Prime Minister Sushil Koirala and UCPN (M) chairperson Pushpa Kamal Dahal held talks to remove the political deadlock. The meeting of the opposition alliance on March 5 termed the earlier informal talks with the prime minister as positive and decided to join formal talks. Then there was another meeting between

Prime Minister Koirala and UCPN (M) chairperson Dahal. The meeting of UCPN (M) parliamentary party decided to participate in parliamentary activities. On March 7, after 47 days, Congress, UML, and the UCPN (M)-led alliance held talks. The meeting agreed to draft the constitution through consensus and gave the responsibility to the four senior leaders.

Prime Minister Koirala held talks with Forum (Loktantrik) chairperson Gachhedar. A meeting of the UCPN (M)-led alliance also took place. Forum (Nepal) chairperson Yadav stressed on moving forward by announcing protests while keeping the door to talks open. Then a meeting of senior leaders of Congress and UML took place and decided to holds talks with the UCPN (M)-led alliance to take the constitution-drafting process forward through consensus. Then Prime Minister Koirala and UCPN (M) chairperson Dahal met for talks. A meeting of Congress, UML, and Madhes-centred parties discussed talks and constitution-drafting through consensus. Congress and UCPN (M) leaders increased the frequency of their talks and discussion on state-restructuring also took place. Congress, UML, UCPN (M) also held talks. Congress and UML had first proposed forming states by combining the eastern districts of Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari and western districts of Kailali and Kanchanpur to the adjacent hill districts. Their second proposal called for holding a referendum in the concerned districts to form the states. Rejecting both proposals, UCPN (M) instead had proposed formation of a federal commission and giving it the responsibility for it. However, Congress and UML did not agree to give the responsibility of only those regions to the commission.