g]sf !#cf}F dxflwj]zg g]kfnL sfFu|];sf] !# cf}F dxflwj]zgdf ;efklt kbdf s'g} klg pDd]bjf/ lgjf{lrt gePkl5 ;f]daf/ bf];|f] k6s dtbfg s]Gb|df ;efkltsf k|Tof;L z]/axfb'/ b]pjf. tl:a/ M /f]zg ;fksf]6f, /f;;

One month after being elected as the Nepali Congress president and one week after becoming the party's parliamentary leader, three-time Prime Minister Sher Bahdur Deuba flew to New Delhi on Monday.

Deuba, accompanied only by his personal secretary, reached New Delhi to look after his wife, Arzoo Rana Deuba who had reached India last week for a surgery. Deuba has downplayed his India visit, saying 'it is apolitical' but NC sources say he will meet some Indian leaders while in New Delhi for six days.

Deuba is known as a veteran political coup-maker with a reputation for toppling incumbents, and he is visiting India at a time when speculation is rife that the main opposition is trying to topple the UML-Maoist-RPP (N) coalition government. Deuba's aides have publicly claimed that the KP Oli government will not unveil the next budget plan in mid July.

NC leader Khum Bahadur Khadka, who backed Deuba to become the party president, is also in New Delhi. Khadka has been leading a campaign to restore Nepal as a Hindu state within the NC, which has officially embraced secularism after the 2006 Democracy Movement.

The fact that Deuba and Khadka have reached New Delhi at the same time has added to speculation in Kathmandu that India is backing Madhesi parties not for readjustment of federal boundaries but for restoration of the erstwhile Hindu state.

Before flying to New Delhi, Deuba also met top Madhesi leaders and promised to address their grievances. After a hiatus of two months, Madhesi parties are preparing to launch a new agitation to exert pressure on the big parties, including Deuba's NC, to amend the constitution.