His Majesty King Gyanendra and Her Majesty Queen Komal are to leave for India on an official visit on Thursday at the invitation of Indian President, A P J Abdul Kalam.
Home Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka and other senior government officials will be accompanying Their Majesties to New Delhi, the state-owned Nepal Television (NTV) reported this evening. The news report, however, did not provide details about the members of the royal entourage.
According to NTV, King Gyanendra will hold discussions with the Indian President on Friday. President Kalam would host a dinner in honour of Their Majesties the same evening.
His Majesty will hold dialogue with Indian premier, Dr. Man Mohan Singh, other senior leaders of the Indian government, former prime ministers and leaders of the ruling coalition during his two-day sojourn of New Delhi.
During their 11-day visit to India, Their Majesties will also visit four of the five Indian states bordering Nepal. They would visit Dehradun—the capital of Uttaranchal, Patna—the capital of Bihar, Lucknow—the capital of Uttar Pradesh and Kolkata—the capital of West Bengal state of India, the NTV news report said.
The only Indian state bordering Nepal that is not in the itinerary of the Nepali royals is Sikkim bordering China. India annexed the tiny Himalayan kingdom in 1975.
His Majesty would grant audience to the chief ministers and governors of these four states and would hold discussions on the issue of the fall out of Maoist insurgency in Nepal into the bordering Indian states, the NTV news report said.
Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had visited New Delhi in September this year.
Offiicials said the royal visit – the third over the last three years– will be a good will visit and expressed hope that it will further strengthen sstate-to-state level relations between the two countries. But the agenda of the visit have not been made public as yet.
King Gyanendra granted audience to senior leaders of the ruling coalition and opposition parties—protesting the royal move of October 2002—on the eve of his visit to the southern neighbour. Analysts say the move may have helped to bridge the gap between the monarch and opposition leaders to some extent.