Koirala proposes referendum to review decision on federalism

“The major political parties have committed a blunder by making a decision regarding federalism in a haste,” Koirala,who is also the Foreign Minister,said.

Nepal’s Interim Constitution has in principle converted the country into a federal state with the Rastriya Janamorcha the only political party in the Constituent Assembly that is opposed to the concept.

“Even in the situation that we cannot backtrack from the decision to declare federal structure,we should opt for small number of federal states,maximum up to 5,not 15 or 16 as suggested by major parties,” Koirala said.

She said a small country like Nepal should not be converted into a federal state as it may divide the nation.

“We can work out decentralisation of power instead of adopting federalism,” she said during an interaction with reporters.

“As it was very important that we should know whether people actually want federalism or not the matter should be decided through referendum,” she said.