New Delhi, June 12:

Communist Party of India (Marxist) politburo member Sitaram Yechury said today that deposed king Gyanendra Shah had every right to join politics.

Talking to daily at his party’s headquarters here, Yechury said the deposed king had the right to join or stay out of politics.

Claiming that he had predicted three years ago that Gyanendra will go down in Nepal’s history as the last king of the Shah dynasty, Yechury said, “The decision to shift the former king from the Narayanhiti Palace to another spot (Nagarjun) is the decision of the Nepali people.”

Reacting to queries about the Nepali people’s opposition to let the former king stay in the Nagarjun palace, Yechury said, “The decision to let him stay there was taken by the political leaders of Nepal. It is they who should provide the answer why they took this decision.”

About brouhaha over whom to make Nepal’s first president, Yechury said, “The Maoists have emerged as the country’s largest political party and the people’s mandate should be honoured.”

He added that his party had been calling for a review of the 1950 Nepal-India peace and friendship treaty.

Speaking about instituting the federal concept in Nepal, Yechury said that within India herself 22 new states would have to be created if segregation was allowed on the basis of language.

“Is it possible?” he queried.