Chairman of the ruling Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) and former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has conceded that not making Girija Prasad Koirala the president was a mistake.
"The peace process would not have started if Koirala had not showed courage. Koirala should have been made president. We committed a mistake," Dahal said during a book launch in Kathmandu on Sunday. He accepted that the then Maoists displayed immaturity in denying the then Nepali Congress chief Koirala the presidency.
He pointed that the constitution would have been drafted within two years of the first Constituent Assembly election had Koirala been appointed the president.
Reminiscing about the Maoist insurgency he revealed that he had met KP Sharma Oli for the first time six years after start of the rebellion. "I had met Oli in India during the insurgency. I had presumed him to be narrow-minded but I changed my opinion after talking with him for three hours. My attraction toward Oli increased after that," Dahal said looking toward PM Oli who was also in attendance.
He opined that the details about political developments will not come to the fore unless he and Oli write books of their own.
