King Gyanendra continued consultations with political leaders on Tuesday on his India tour beginning December 23.
The King granted audience to Nepali Congress president and former prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala, former prime ministers Lokendra Bahadur Chand and Surya Bahadur Thapa and Nepal Workers and Peasants Party chairman Narayanman Bijukchhe this evening.
After a half-hour meeting with the King, NC president Koirala told reporters, “The King said that this will be a goodwill visit.” He further said: “I suggested him that it was crucial to win support of the people before embarking on a foreign tour and the revival of the House of Representatives would be a viable step to that direction,” he further said.
Koirala also said he urged the King to reveal the agendas, if any, for his India visit. During the audience, according to him, he conveyed his idea of resolving the Maoist problem. “Your analysis is good,” Koirala quoted the King as saying. However, the NC president did not reveal what his suggestion was.
After Koirala, Chand, Bijukchhe and Thapa received the royal audience, respectively. All were given approximately half-an-hour to interact with the King.
Chand tried to avoid the media while Bijukchhe told reporters that the King was keen to know about India’s position over the Maoist problem.
“I suggested that the King, during the visit, discuss the pertaining issues concerning border encroachment and water resources since the prime minister and the ministers were not courageous enough to raise these issues,” he explained.
He, too, advised the King to reinstate the parliament. “I didn’t get any response on my advice,” he said.
Meanwhile, according to sources, senior Congress leader Krishna Prasad Bhattrai who received an audience with the King on Monday urged the King to reinstate the parliament.
“I told the King that the parliament can be a meeting ground of all the mainstream political parties so there is logic in reinstating the parliament,” a source close to Bhattrai quoted him as saying.