'India has no grievances about local polls in Nepal'

Nepal has said India has expressed no "grievances" over the forthcoming local body elections which are being conducted in the landlocked country after a gap of nearly two decades.
Speaking at the Reporters' Club in Kathmandu yesterday, Nepal's Ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyay said, India had never spoken against the announcement of local polls in Nepal.
"India has no grievances about the forthcoming local body election slated for May 14, 2017," said Upadhyay while interacting with the reporters in Kathmandu.
Upadhyay's statement came at a time when Indian-origin Madhesi parties have warned to boycott the local body polls as the government did not pay attention to amend the constitution for addressing their concern before announcing the poll date.

The Madhesi parties have been demanding more representation in all state mechanism. They had launched a six-month- long agitation from September 2015 to February last year in which more than 50 people were killed.
The decision taken by Nepal's Parliament and the council of ministers will be the final in this regard, he clarified.

Indian officials had also not expressed their opposition to the scheduled elections to him, he added.
Upadhyay said elections must take place on the stipulated date for the implementation of the constitution.
In a different note, he said, the visit of Nepal's President Bidyadevi Bhandari will take place soon.

Both the sides are preparing for the upcoming visit and a date will soon be worked and the visit programme will be officially announced soon, he said.
Last month, the Nepal government had decided to hold the much-delayed but crucial local body elections in May, the first such polls in two decades.
The local body elections have not been held for 20 years years due to the decade-long Maoist insurgency. It was last held in 1997.