The majority of Nepalis Tuesday directly defied the all-out nine-day transport strike called by a front consisting of 33 fringe parties headed by the Communist Party of Nepal—Maoist (CPN—M), a split from the Unified Communist Party of Nepal Maoist (UCPNM). A heavy presence of private and other small vehicles such as taxis, tempos and mini-trucks could be seen in the streets of the Kathmandu Valley. However, commercial passenger vehicles were quite few in number.
The parties have called the transport strike against the Constituent Assembly elections set for November 19, 2013. Their demand is to postpone the elections, which they term as the Indian conspiracy to take over Nepal through a new constitution.
As part of its anti-election campaign, the Maoist split, based on its former armed combat experience, has been terrorizing voters by exploding pressure cooker and socket bombs while using petrol bombs against the running vehicles.
The UCPNM, the Nepali Congress (NC), the Unified Marxist-Leninist (UML) and other parties are contesting the elections, arguing that they are the ones to lead a new Nepal with a federal republican structure. a debate since the abolition of monarchy by the elected Constituent Assembly on May 28, 2008.
The other anti-election 32 parties with an estimated few dozen supporters each are seldom heard among people while the UCPNM split has about 3000 former People’s Liberation Army (PLA) fighters with whose mobilization the central leadership of the faction is getting its name highlighted in the Nepali media.
Should the bombs haunt Nepali private transport entrepreneurs, the Nepalis are likely to suffer for a few more days. As Nepal does not have a public transport system at all, individually owned commercial passenger vehicles connected with syndicating groups operate at their own will. On strike days, ordinary people suffer due to the stoppage of transport operations.
Surprisingly, the Nepal Government has not yet arrested the open leaders under whose leadership bombs are being exploded in the name of boycotting the Constituent Assembly elections.