RJP chairman Surya Bahadur Thapa (File Photo)

RJP chairman Surya Bahadur Thapa (File Photo)
Former Prime Minister and chairman of Rastriya Janashakti Party (RJP), Surya Bahadur Thapa, and former premier and Nepali Congress president, Girija Prasad Koirala, met in the capital, Kathmandu, Wednesday morning and held serious discussions on the current political situation in the country.

Details of the 45-minute-long meeting were not immediately available.

A source close to Thapa told Nepalnews that during the meeting both the leaders were ‘very concerned’ about the problems facing the country and were of the view that there was a need to find a way out as soon as possible in favour of the country, people and democracy.

Girija Prasad Koirala (File photo)

Girija Prasad Koirala (File photo)
A veteran politician of Panchayat era, Thapa floated RJP even when the country was under the state of emergency after the royal takeover in February this year. He was appointed Prime Minister by His Majesty King Gyanendra in 2003 after the resignation of a royal loyalist Lokendra Bahadur Chand.

Thapa, however, resigned in less than a year amid intense wrangling within his Rastriya Prajatantra Party.

His Majesty the King then re-appointed Sher Bahadur Deuba as the premier in 2004 who led a four-party coalition until he was dismissed unceremoniously on February 1 this year.

Former premier Koirala is leading the seven-party alliance against the royal takeover. He is expected to contest for the top job of the oldest party in the country once again in its upcoming general convention next month.

Analysts say the meeting between Thapa and Koirala—two veterans of Nepali politics—could be important as the direct rule of the king completes its first six months.

Foreign diplomats have started saying openly, including the US envoy to Kathmandu James F Moriarty who spoke in Kathmandu Tuesday, that there hasn’t been any progress towards fulfilling the pledge that His Majesty made during the royal proclamation on February 1.

The international community has been repeatedly urging His Majesty to reach out to mainstream parliamentary parties that are launching a nationwide peaceful movement against the royal takeover.

Critics say the seven-party opposition alliance is gradually drifting towards the CPN (Maoist)—that has the professed republican agenda—as the royal palace seems to have effectively shut all doors of reconciliation with what US envoy described as ‘legitimate forces’ of the country.

Addressing a select gathering in the Nepali capital on Tuesday, ambassador Moriarty quoted former President Abraham Lincoln as saying – in the backdrop of the US civil war– that “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

“For the sake of Nepal’s children, the legitimate political forces should rise above their differences and come up with a plan to work together. Otherwise there may not be a country to govern,” he warned.

The US envoy, however, did not explain from where the existential threat to Nepal – the oldest nation-state in South Asia– occurred.