Kathmandu, April 20 (HS): Just before the demonstration in support of the monarchy scheduled for Sunday, former king Gyanendra Shah held a dinner meeting with his close leaders on Saturday. The meeting with these leaders is considered quite significant as it comes just a day before the announcement to break into the prohibited area.

On Saturday evening, a dinner meeting took place at the former king's residence, Nirmal Niwas, in Kathmandu with seven top leaders of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP). Among the leaders who attended the dinner meeting at the former king's house were RPP President Rajendra Lingden, Pashupati Shamsher Rana, Prakashchandra Lohani, Vikram Pandey, Dhruv Bahadur Pradhan, Buddhi Tamang, and Gyanendra Shah.

After this meeting, RPP Member of Parliament Gyanendra Shah confirmed that the meeting with the former king took place at Nirmal Niwas. He stated that discussions were held regarding the demonstrations resuming on Sunday for the restoration of the monarchy. There was also a discussion about disagreements between pro-monarchy organizations and political parties on certain issues.

This dinner meeting of RPP leaders with former king Gyanendra Shah took place at a time when the party's central committee had decided to prohibit its members from joining any other pro-monarchy organization or campaign aside from its own. On Friday, the RPP had imposed a ban on all its office bearers participating in any other pro-monarchy association, organization, or campaign.

It is believed that this dinner meeting was called by former king Gyanendra to discuss the dissatisfaction stemming from the delegation of struggle responsibilities to certain leaders within the RPP, which has already announced its intention to break into the prohibited area for the protest in Kathmandu on Sunday. At the same time, the government has warned the RPP against undertaking such actions.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar