Newly appointed Indian Ambassador to Nepal Rakesh Sood on Sunday met CPN (Maoist) chairman Prachanda for the second time in less than a week to discuss the formation of the next government which is likely to be headed by Prachanda himself.

During the meeting held at Prachanda’s Nayabazaar residence, Indian envoy
Sood also tried to learn what place would be accorded to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala in the new government.

A source who had access to the meeting said that in the meeting Sood proposed to the Maoist supremo that Koirala be made the first president of republican Nepal; Maoist take up the executive premiership and UML be given the chairman of Constituent Assembly.

Although in recent public functions Prachanda has been maintaining that in the next government the prime minister and the head of state should be one person, he has however also talked about giving a respectable place to Koirala in it. The election manifesto of the party had provision for executive Head of State and Prachanda had in the run up to the election presented himself as the next president.

The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly, agendas to be discussed there, implementation of republican agenda were also discussed in the meeting.

Prachanda’s deputy Dr Baburam Bhattarai was also present in the meeting.

Immediately after assuming office in Kathmandu, Sood had intensified his parleys with leaders of major political parties. He had met PM Koirala last week and discussed the ongoing peace process, formation of new government and India’s support in the post-election scenario. Sood is said to be pressing for keeping Koirala as the “ceremonial president”. nepalnews.com ag May 11 08