"It feels like as if our media are looking left and right to see who speaks first and what he speaks." Ha ha ... well said! :) A couple of more thoughts on the broader subject of the balance of power in Nepal (1) Congress stands to gain from a republic : I personally feel it is in the interest of the Congress party and GPK to abolish the Monarchy. The reason being the Congress is the natural second choice of most conservative voters in Nepal. Such people do still exist, although not in huge numbers, but there are enough of them to tilt an election one way or the other. The Congress has historically (at least in the first 10 years of democracy) relied on this vote. If you recall, Girija Koirala used to publicly defend consitutional monarchy around election time during his first few terms. He may have done that out of conviction, but I think there was also political calculation behind it : to attract the so called pro-King/pro-Army voters way from the RPP which a lot of people as as ineffective and irrelevant. Obviously there are hard-core Royalists who absolutely hate Koirala and the Congress party especially amongst the richer and Kathmandu based voters but the majority of pro-King voters, especially outside the valley, are much more susceptible to voting for the Congress than many people would like to believe. (2) Differentiation from the left helps the Congress: The country has steadily moved leftwards over the last few decades and this trend has accelerated in the last 10-15 years. The Maoist movement and Jana Andolan II have re-defined the balance of power in Nepal. The left has never really been this strong in Nepal. The content of the recent parliamentary proclamation is proof enough of this. Therefore, a lot of people in the Congress are drawn to the conclusion that the Congress needs to be the "un-left" party in order to survive and get elected. Personally, I think this is a risky proposition but I fear there are too many people in the party who believe this and will base their future strategy on this. (3) The Maoists need the SPA as much as the SPA needs them: For all the talk about Maoists attaining some sort of a superpower status, the government is still in the hands of the SPA, the King remains a mute spectator, the Army hates Koirala but doesnt have a choice other than to back him against Prachanda, and the international community seems to support the SPA. The SPA-Maoist alliance gives the Maoists the credibility they lack with the international community and urban voters. If the Maoists were to come to power on their own, they could be on the receiving end of another revolution if they fail to deliver and as the last 4 years have shown you cant deliver in Nepal if you piss of everyone else in the country and the world. (4) UML and Congress may be loosing their relevance : With the UML competing with the Maoists for the left vote, there is a distinct possibility that we will see a two party state : Congress versus Maoists. It is equally possible that the Congress may loose its relevance if it can't pull up it socks and decide where it stands on fundamental issues like Monarchy and secularism. In such a case, we may find ourselves in a democratic communist state : where the UML represents the more moderate elements and the Maoists the more radical ones. (5) The King is down but not out yet : As much as I would like to see the Monarchy abolished, it would not be prudent to count them out completely at this point. At least till the CA elections. Monarchy as we have known it historically is dead. But the King, if he is half as smart as they claim him to be, could try to re-invent the institution in the image of a modern, pragmatic and reformed institution. This wont attract voters in droves and allow him to come back to power but it could sway enough people to tilt the CA elections in favor of non-republican candidates or worse put pressure on elected CA members to vote for a setup that has constitutional monarchy in it. (6) Public opinion will be all powerful : You raise a great point about public awareness and its power. As long as the SPA can keep majority public opinion on it's side, the more moderate forces can stay in power. A failure on the part of the SPA to keep reform at a fast pace will favor the Maoist. The irony of this revolution, is GPK, who is certainly not the most revolutionary of politicians, looks like a geriatric version of Che Guevara! Public opinion seems to have lit a fire underneath the SPA and as long as the public keeps them on a tight leash, it is likely that the pace of reform will not slow down and we will see some constructive and long-lasting changes in the larger interest of the country and its people.