Days after the CPN-Maoist lifted its five-month-old blockade of parliament to facilitate the approval of the 2009 budget, the party Vice chairman Baburam Bhattarai announced the decision to declare “13 parallel regional governments” in an effort to step up the pressure on the government.

The political parties are deadlocked over the Maoists’ demand to rectify the decision of President Ram Baran Yadav, who reinstated General Rukmangad Katawal, the then Army Chief dismissed by Maoists Prime Minister Prachanda in May.

The Maoists, who have around 40 percent of the seats in parliament, argue that the president’s move was unconstitutional and has compromised “civilian supremacy” over the military.

According to the Maoist journal ‘Janadisha’, the former rebels have also decided to hold massive rallies across 13 regions of the country from December 11 to 18 in protest against the President’s “unconstitutional move”.

In a significants development, Maoist chief Prachanda met President Yadav and expressed his party’s willingness to end the current political deadlock that has stalled the peace process in the country.

During the one-and-half-hour long meeting, Yadav told Prachanda that he wanted the political parties to move forward to complete the crucial task of drafting the constitution on time, President’s press advisor Rajendra Dahal said.

The President expressed his willingness to cooperate with the political parties to end the deadlock and forge consensus on key political issues.

Sources close to the president said the main objective of the meeting was to learn about the president’s mood on the current political situation.

Prachanda told the President that his party was not against him “personally” though they have been forced to launch an agitation against the reinstatement of the Gen Katawal, sources close to the Maoist leader said.

Prachanda underlined his party’s commitment “to resolve the current political stalemate”.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal has expressed concern about the Maoists’ plan to declare autonomous regions as it would lead to confrontation in the country. He said it was irresponsible on the part of the Maoists to quit the path of political consensus and declare autonomous regions.

At a time when the parties were talking of formation of high-level political mechanism to end the deadlock, the Maoists’ announcement has created a situation of confrontation in the country, the Prime minister told mediapersons at the airport in western Nepalgunj. He said the path chosen by the Maoists will prove harmful.

According to analysts, Prachanda’s meeting with the president is an attempt to find a middle path to resolve the crisis.

It is interesting to note here that Prachanda, whose party has launched a movement against the President for months, has met him twice after he quit the Prime Minister’s post over the reinstatement of the army chief.

Meanwhile, a senior Nepali Congress leader said on condition of anonymity that Maoist leader Prachanda had offered the post of the President to Koirala during his meeting with the former prime minister in Singapore last week.

A report in the Rajdhani daily said the meeting in Singapore was aimed at toppling the coalition government.

However, the Nepali Congress supremo had dismissed the report on his arrival in the country last week.

In the earlier second phase of the protest, which came to an end in mid-November, the Maoists blockaded the capital and thousands of its cadres picketed the country´s central secretariat at Singha Durbar for two days.