King Gyanendra relents to the power of people

Updated at 10.20 pm

KATHMANDU: Buckling under mass protests, Nepal's King Gyanendra on Friday announced that he will hand over political power he had assumed 14 months ago to the people and asked the seven-party alliance to name a new Prime Minister.

The alliance rejected his offer.

"Executive power shall from this day be returned to the people," the beleaguered King said as tens of thousands of pro-democracy activists virtually laid a siege of the capital for the second day,  defying curfew and shoot-at-sight orders.

The announcement by a grim-faced monarch, in a 10-minute address to the nation on the state-run Nepal Television, came a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's special envoy Karan Singh bluntly told him to restore multi-party democracy and hold a dialogue with political parties.

It remained unclear how the transition will take place but the 58-year-old King asked the seven-party alliance, spearheading the agitation against him, to recommend at the earliest a name for an interim Prime Minister till the election process is over.

Till such time the new Cabinet is constituted, the present Council of Ministers would continue to function, said the monarch, who had seized the executive power after dislodging the elected government of Sher Bahadur Deuba on February one last year.

The King said he was returning the executive power to the people according to Article 35 of the Constitution.