March 25, 2008 Slain Crown Prince's
Love
Hits Nepal Poll Trail By Sudeshna Sarkar
Kathmandu
Seven years after she was catapulted into media headlines worldwide
following the mysterious massacre of Nepal's royal family in the
tightly guarded palace in Kathmandu, the dead crown prince's love,
Devyani Rana, is making waves again.
The svelte, beautiful Devyani, who last year exorcised her links
with ill-fated crown prince Dipendra by marrying into Indian
aristocracy, is now back in her homeland to hit the campaign trail
for the crucial April election.
Dipendra is blamed for the palace massacre in 2001 that killed the
king, queen and two other royal children.
Devyani, married to Delhi entrepreneur Aishwarya Singh, grandson of
Indian Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh, has
returned from a honeymoon in Europe to campaign for her father
Pashupati Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana and his Rastriya Prajatantra
Party (RPP), the biggest opposition party in Nepal.
Rana, the grandson of the last all-powerful Rana prime minister of
Nepal, is contesting the April 10 constituent assembly election from
two constituencies in Sindhupalchowk, an inaccessible mountainous
district in north Nepal where many villages still do not have
electricity, running water or motorable roads.
The Oxford-educated Rana's poll campaign has repeatedly come under
attack from the Maoists, who stopped him several times from holding
public meetings.
In the past, Rana has won from Sindhupalchowk thrice in a row. The
opposition leader is now trying to keep his record intact and
triumph over nearly 10 rivals, including the powerful local
representative of the Maoists, Dawa Tamang.
For the last two weeks, father and daughter have been going from one
poll meet to another in the remote villages of the constituency.
Though Devyani, who works for the UN in New Delhi, had shown no
inclination to join politics, it runs in her blood.
On her mother's side, she is the niece of India's former royal
family of Scindia. Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje is her
aunt.
In 2006, another celebrity Nepal daughter also campaigned on behalf
of her father's party.
Bollywood actress Manisha Koirala flew down from India's tinsel town
to campaign in Biratnagar along the Indo-Nepal border for the
controversial local election called by King Gyanendra, which was
supported by her father Prakash Koirala.
Ironically, the election was boycotted by over 90 percent parties,
including Rana's RPP and the Nepali Congress, Nepal's biggest party
of which Manisha's grandfather B.P. Koirala was one of the leading
lights.
The poll, not recognised by the international community, marked the
beginning of the end of the king's government and a dip in Manisha's
popularity.
However, Devyani has a better image in Nepal.
She is regarded with respect for her dignified handling of the
crisis that arose after the palace massacre with a section of
reports saying the crown prince had turned the gun on his parents
after they opposed his desire to marry Devyani.
Her wedding party in Kathmandu was a lesson in reconciliation,
attended by both King Gyanendra and the men who dethroned the king,
prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala and Maoist leaders.
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