Nepal president Bidya Devi Bhandari to visit India on Monday, meet top Indian leaders

New Delhi: Nepalese President Bidya Devi Bhandari will arrive here tomorrow on a five-day visit during which she will meet the senior leadership here besides visiting temples in Gujarat and Odisha. This is her first state visit abroad after assuming the office in October 2015. She is visiting at the invitation of President Pranab Mukherjee. “A high-level delegation comprising minister, MPs and senior officials will be accompanying her. [caption id=“attachment_3386902” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Nepal President Bidhya Devi Bhandari. Reuters[/caption] “Her visit will reflect the priority that India attaches to further strengthening the age-old and unique partnership with Nepal, shared cultural and historical linkages and strong people-and-people relationship,” Joint Secretary (North) in the external affairs ministry Sudhakar Dalela said on Sunday. She will meet President Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and other leaders, he said at an MEA briefing. “The president will host a banquet in her honour on 18 April. She will also visit Gujarat and Odisha and pay obeisance at temples of Dwarka, Somnath and Puri,” Dalela said. Bhandari was scheduled to visit India in May last year, but it was cancelled after the then cabinet in Nepal did not endorse the programme citing lack of preparations on the part of the government. The bilateral ties had faced turbulence last year due to the Madhesi agitation and subsequent blockade which halted the supply of essential goods to landlocked Nepal from India.