Kathmandu:After making comments about Sardar Pritam Singh that appeared to allude to India's alleged interference in the domestic politics of the Himalayan nation, Nepal's Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda found himself in hot water.

Soon after, the opposition called for Prachanda to step down, saying he should do so on "moral grounds" and that Nepal "doesn't need a PM appointed by Delhi." Some leaders of the ruling party reportedly disagreed with his statement as well.

Earlier, it was widely reported that India trusted former Maoist rebel leader Prachanda more than current leader of Nepal's main opposition party, the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), former prime minister KP Sharma Oli.

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With support from India, Prachanda was elected PM for a third time in December 2022. Several parties, including the CPN-UML, left the ruling coalition in the months that followed.

At the book launch for Kirandeep Sandhu's Roads to the Valley: The Legacy of Sardar Pritam Singh in Nepal on Sunday, while Prachanda was speaking, the controversy broke out.

Singh, an Indian native who had made his home in Nepal, was a pioneering businessman in the trucking industry who, in the opinion of Prachanda, significantly improved relations between India and Nepal.

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Prachanda claimed Singh "once made efforts" to appoint him as Nepal's prime minister.
In order to appoint me as prime minister, he made numerous trips to Delhi and held numerous rounds of negotiations with political figures in Kathmandu, according to Prachanda.

Later on, he clarified that he had only paraphrased what Singh had said in the book and that his comments had been "misinterpreted to cause a stir."

He continued, "I wanted to show that Pritam Singh was interested in politics as well as social services and the transport industry, and that he had lobbied with parties in Delhi and Nepal to make me prime minister.

The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and the CPN-UML simultaneously chanted, "A prime minister appointed by New Delhi does not have the right to continue in the post."

In Nepal's lower house, CPN-UML lawmaker Raghuji Pant demanded Prachanda's resignation.

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Ganesh Shah, the leader of Prachanda's party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), said Prachanda ought to have used diplomatic language with caution when "speaking about such sensitive issue."