Prachanda meets police chiefs, Indian leaders

Kathmandu, Aug 18 : Newly elected Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias 'Prachanda' met several police chiefs and delegation of Indian leaders this morning.

Inspector General of Nepal Police Om Bikram Rana met Prachanda at his residence.

Rana, whose tenure is ending next month, is learnt to have told him about the blast which took place near Vice President Pramananda Jha's residence on Sunday. At least one security personnel was injured.

In a separate meeting with Inspector General of Armed Police Force (APF) Basudev Oli, Prachanda sought details about the structure of police forces and the latest security situation in the country.

Prachanda also met delegation of Indian leaders who will participate in his swearing-in ceremony as the first Prime Minister of Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.

Nepal President Ram Baran Yadav will administer the oath of office and secrecy to Prachanda in a specially called swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan at Sheetal Niwas this afternoon.

The ceremony will be attended by heads of all security forces, diplomats and top bureaucrats.

Prachanda won the prime ministerial election on Friday with the support of two other allies, the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) and the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) by a huge majority.

In the election in the Constituent Assembly (CA), he won 464 votes against his rival Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress, who got only 113 out of the 577 votes cast.

Senior leader of the (CPN-M) Baburam Bhattarai said that along with the new prime minister, a 23-member council of ministers is also expected to be sworn in, nepalnews reported.

ANI