Rupandehi, January 22:

King Gyanendra wishes to stay put like King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia and wants Maoist chairman Prachanda to take necessary steps for such, said Shyam Shrestha, a leftist intellectual.

Shrestha said this while inaugurating the sixth anniversary of People’s Campaign for Constituent Assembly in Butwal today.

“King Gyanendra sent a proposal, through one of his envoys a week ago, to Prachanda saying that he was ready to stay like Sihanouk,” Shrestha quoted Maoist chairman Prachanda as telling him during their recent meeting.

“But Maoist chairman Prachanda replied to the king that ‘time has already gone’,” Shrestha said adding that the king was impatient after the interim constitution suspended monarchy.

Saying that the ongoing agitation in Terai is justifiable, Shrestha said the government has to address it early.

“The demands of federal governing system, providing recognition to Maithali, Bhojpuri, and Abadhi languages and selecting representatives on the basis of proportion of population in the election are genuine,” said Shrestha.

He further added that the Madhesi population, which comprises 48 per cent of the total population in Nepal, has been poorly represented in the state mechanism.

“Nepal’s future will be bright if the eight political parties keep working together,” he said.