Parties ask King to hand over power to people
Main parties demanded that King hand over power to the people before they put forward the consensus candidate name for PM's post.
Nepal's five main political parties today demanded that King Gyanendra agree in principle to hand over power to the people before they put forward the name of a consensus candidate for the Prime Minister's post.
"There are no differences among the five parties in suggesting the name of the new Prime Minister.We will suggest the name of the Prime Minister unanimously once the King publicly announces that he will return sovereign power to the people," Nepali Congress Spokesman Arjun Narsingh K C said.
"We want the King to re-activate the constitution and return power to the people," he said adding the five parties will hold week-long agitation programmes including sit-in, protest rallies, public meetings and black flag demonstrations in support of their demands.
At their meeting earlier in the day, the five parties discussed their recent joint and separate meetings with the King and decided to further intensify their joint agitation.
The agitating parties are daily taking people to the streets chanting anti-King slogans and demanding return to full-fledged democracy despite the audience granted by the King to them last week.
Today also they staged sit-in on way to the royal palace and chanted anti-King slogans as part of their protest shows.
King Gyanendra dismissed an elected Prime Minister on October 2002 and assumed executive powers through a royal proclamation.