All assistance for holding local elections, Modi assures Prachanda

Kathmandu April 25 (IANS) Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday assured his Nepali counterpart Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda that India would extend all possible assistance for the local elections in Nepal.


In a telephonic conversation on Tuesday evening Modi also conveyed the good wishes of the Indian people and government to the friendly people of Nepal in their efforts to achieve peace stability and socio-economic transformation.

A recent political breakthrough has heightened the chances of the Madhes-based political parties participating in the poll process if they will agree on content of revised constitution amendment bill tabled by the government in Parliament.

Modi also extended his best wishes for Prachanda for successful conduct of the local elections.

Nepal is holding local elections in two phases in May and June after a 20 year hiatus. According to the statement issued by PM s secretariat the Nepali Prime Minister thanked Modi for his best wishes and reiterated that Nepal will implement the constitution by holding the election on time.

A statement by the Indian embassy here said that the two Prime Ministers discussed recent developments in India-Nepal relations including the recently-concluded highly successful state visit of President Bidhya Devi Bhandari to India.

Prime Minister Prachanda spoke about the ongoing efforts of his government to take all stakeholders on board in the constitution implementation process. PM Prachanda also spoke about Nepal holding the first local elections in nearly twenty years and requested for India s assistance in this connection it said.

It also said that Modi assured that India would extend all possible assistance for local elections while both leaders reiterated their commitment to advance multi-faceted India-Nepal cooperative ties for the benefit of their peoples.

--IANS
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