Nepal's Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand yesterday resigned from his post, adding to the growing political confusion in the Himalayan kingdom and throwing a shadow over peace talks with Maoist rebels.
A palace statement announced the resignation and said King Gyanendra immediately summoned political leaders for consultations on a possible successor and a new council of ministers.
Chand, appointed after the king on October 4 sacked the then-prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and dissolved parliament, has been the focus of increasingly violent street protests in Kathmandu and other towns.
The resignation was a bid to defuse the growing anger against the monarch by members of five political parties who were represented in the now-dissolved parliament, a highly-placed government source said.
The political parties, supported by students, have been leading street protests in support of the reinstatement of parliament, with many political leaders injured in recent weeks in police baton charges.
The political parties are also opposed to a ceasefire the Chand government signed with Maoist rebels in January.
Two rounds of peace talks between the government and the Maoists have since been held, both boycotted by the parties.
"Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand has tendered his resignation to His Majesty King Gyanendra and the king has accepted his resignation," the palace statement said.
Madhav Kumar Nepal, general secretary of the Nepal Communist Party United Marxist and Leninist, the largest political group in Nepal, welcomed the resignation.
"The king should seek the cooperation and consent of all political parties," Nepal said, adding, "The new government should be composed of all parties which were represented in the dissolved parliament."
He also urged the king to return sovereign and executive authority, which he had claimed on October 4, to the new government.
If he does not do this, political protests would continue, Nepal warned.
Chand's resignation comes a day after Nepal was in the world spotlight when it celebrated the 50th anniversary of the conquest of its most famous mountain, Everest, by Sir Edmund Hillary and the late Tenzing Norgay Sherpa.
The prime minister, in his last public function, Thursday presented medals to Everest summiters at a colorful ceremony attended by Hillary and later by the king.
But behind the festivities, political parties opposed to Chand took advantage of the large media presence to press home their demands.
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