Kathmandu (dpa) – All 49 ministers in Nepal's cabinet resigned en masse late Thursday, in a bid to resolve a long standing political stalemate.
The ministers from the Maoist party and the Madhesi Font resigned under an agreement struck earlier to form a unity government in the next three days.
That government will be under the current prime minister, Baburam Bhattarai.
The parties said the move to form a national consensus government would speed up the process of drafting a constitution, which has been stalemated due to bickering among the parties on a number of issues.
Deputy Prime Minister and Maoist Vice Chairman Narayankaji Shrestha said the new government would include the key opposition parties such as the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxists-Leninists (UML).
Baburam Bhattarai, from the Maoist party, has been prime minister since August 2011 - after his predecessor Jhalanath Khanal stepped down, failing to make any progress in the peace process and constitution process.
Bhattarai took credit for completion of the peace process as the former Maoist soldiers were brought under control of the government last month.
Maoists fought a decade-long insurgency that ended in 2006 when they signed a peace pact with the government. They entered mainstream politics through constituent assembly election in 2008.
Nepal is currently faced with a May 27 deadline to write a new constitution. But the process has been delayed as consensus on the system of governance, electoral system and division of provinces has been disputed by the parties.
dpa pt mat
Author: Pratibha Tuladhar
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