More contenders in fray for Nepal PM's post.

(From The Statesman (India))

Sudeshna Sarkar STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE KATHMANDU, May 31. - Though not as gory as Friday the 13th, Friday nevertheless seems to be an unlucky day for Nepal.

The massacre in the royal palace in June 2001 that wiped out the entire family of the then King Birendra occurred on a Friday. Last year it was on a Friday (4 October) that the Sher Bahadur Deuba government was dismissed. And Prime Minister Mr Lokendra Bahadur Chand's resignation and its acceptance by King Gyanendra took place yesterday, a Friday once again.

King Gyanendra has given the major parties in Nepal 72 hours to come up with a consensus candidate to replace Mr Chand. The present Cabinet will carry on with its duties till the new government is formed. After a long meeting with the parties in the royal palace last night, the king also agreed to restore the dissolved House of Representatives, the Lower House of Parliament, if the parties reached a consensus.

The four parliamentary parties, whose ongoing agitation on the streets triggered Mr Chand's resignation, had an unpleasant surprise yesterday when they arrived at the palace for a collective audience with the King.

Mr Girija Prasad Koirala, president of the Nepali Congress, Mr Madhav Kumar Nepal, general secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist Leninist, Mr Amik Sherchan, president of the People's Front, and Mr Narayan Man Bijukchhe, president of Nepal Peasants and ...