KIRAN PANDAY

The Maoists recently concluded that the new constitution won't be promulgated by the deadline. They hope to cash in on the delay by laying the groundwork for revolt. Leaders have already been assigned tasks toward this end.

Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Mohan Baidhya, Baburam Bhattarai and Ram Bahadur Thapa head the technical, ideological, political and organisational fronts respectively. Earlier, the core team of Dahal, Thapa and Baidhya used to look after overall responsibilities of
the party. The party has included Bhattarai in its core team this time.

All six members of the technical team are founding members of the armed insurgency. This front will be responsible for inducting the disqualified PLA back in the party, and holding talks with the government and international community for the integration of the PLA.

The technical front used to look after arms and military training during the insurgency. It has now been entrusted with the responsibility of developing strategies for possible confrontation with the army in the future and setting up military bases in urban areas.
The organisational front is responsible for resolving internal conflicts and unifying the party.

The political front will find ways to work in unison with other parties on the issues of linguistic, ethnic, regional rights.

The ideological front, led by Mohan Baidhya, is responsible for preparing the party's strategic policy, analysing national and international political developments and conceptualising strategic slogans. The Kharipati meeting of cadres settled on 'federal democratic republic' as one such slogan that encompassed five short-term plans: constitution writing, the peace process, PLA integration, national independence and national unity government.