Kathmandu, Apr 21: The cultural privileges allocated to Nepal’s King Gyanendra will be withdrawn soon, Ram Bahadur Thapa, a senior Maoist leader has said.

Addressing reporters here, Thapa said, “We would openly meet with the king and ask him to leave Narayanhiti Palace right away.”

Thapa’s statement followed another statement by a senior Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai, who said, “The king would be allowed to live the life of a respectable citizen along with the opportunity to enjoy cultural rights. The party could even discuss to give him allowances from the State coffers.”

“I do not know in which context Bhattarai said that the king could retain his cultural rights. The formal stance of the party is to do away with all vestiges of the institution of monarchy,” Kantipuronline quoted Thapa, as saying.

Thapa argued that allowing the monarch to exercise any kind of right would mean retaining the fossils of an obsolete monarchy.

He advised the king to gracefully leav the palace after the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly (CA).

“This is the best alternative available. If the king fails to abide by the people’s mandate, there is a State mechanism. And if the State mechanism fails to act, the king will have to incur a big loss,” Thapa warned. (ANI)