New Delhi, July 24: Former Prime Minister and senior leader of CPN-UML Madhav Kumar Nepal arrived in New Delhi Wednesday on a five-day official visit at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Upon arrival, Nepal was welcomed and received at the Indira Gandhi International Airport by Joint Secretary (North) of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, Akhilesh Misra, and Indian ambassador to Nepal, Jayant Prasad.
During his visit, Nepal is scheduled to hold meetings with senior political leaders of India, according to Rajan Bhattarai, who is Nepal’s former foreign affairs adviser and is accompanying the former prime minister in this visit. Nepal is also accompanied by UML General Secretary Ishwor Pokharel. [break]
Bhattarai informed that Nepal is scheduled to meet United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday. Foreign Secretary of India, Ranjan Mathai, will brief the former Prime Minister Nepal on July 25 followed by two meetings with Devi Prasad Tripathi, General Secretary of the Nationalist Congress Party of India and a member of Upper House, and Member of Parliament of Indian National Congress from Madhya Pradesh, Sajan Singh Verma.
On Friday, Nepal will first hold breakfast meeting with senior leaders from various leftist political parties of India. He will also speak on the topic "Recent Political Developments and the upcoming Constituent Assembly Elections in Nepal” at the Indian Council of World Affairs in Delhi the same day.
He will thereafter attend a luncheon meeting with Indian Minister for External Affairs Salman Khurshid. In the evening, meetings are scheduled with leader of opposition L K Advani and also with senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley.
Keeping with the tradition, the Nepalese Embassy in Delhi, too, has organized a reception and interaction program with Nepal on July 25.
Nepal is set to leave for Patna, the capital of Indian state of Bihar, on Saturday where he will attend a lunch meeting with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Nepal is also scheduled to address a special programm at Nalanda University.
Nepal will participate in an interaction program with representatives of various Nepali organisations based in New Delhi on Sunday before returning back to Kathmandu.
His visit comes after senior leader of Nepali Congress Sher Bahadur Deuba’s visit to India last month and Chairman of UCPN (Maoist) Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s visit to India in April end.
Interestingly, Nepal’s visit has coincided with the visit of American Vice President Joe Biden who is currently on a four-day visit to India. Biden is set to leave Delhi on Thursday.
Thapa too in Delhi
Senior leader and former Chairman of Rastriya Janashakti Party (RJP) Surya Bahadur Thapa was spotted in New Delhi on Wednesday. Family sources have said that he is on a personal visit to New Delhi for health check-up.
Thapa is set to take over the reins of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) as the Chairman after the coming together of RJP and RPP last month.
It is yet unclear if Thapa has held parleys with senior Indian leaders. Repeated attempts to contact him failed on Wednesday.
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