A day after President Bidya Devi Bhandari’s high level engagements in New Delhi, India on Wednesday said that its leadership “reiterates its support to ongoing efforts of the government of Nepal in moving constitution implementation process forward through dialogue and taking all sections of its society on board”.

President Bhandari, who is on a five-day state visit to India, held talks with her Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior ministers on Tuesday. 

“The Indian political leadership conveyed the good wishes of the people and the government of India to the friendly people of Nepal in their national efforts to achieve peace, stability and all round of development,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement on Wednesday.  “The Indian leadership reiterated its support to ongoing efforts of the government of Nepal in moving constitution implementation process forward through dialogue and taking all sections of its society on board.”

Bhandari’s visit to India, first after assuming office in October 2015, comes at a time when Nepal has announced local level elections, first in two decades, for May 14. However, the agitating Madhes-based parties’ announcement to foil the polls has been a major cause for concern.

India, which earlier had taken a clear stance on Nepal’s constitution with its terse response of “noted” in September 2015 as well on the Madhes-based parties’ subsequent protests against the statute, this time has stopped short of speaking anything specifically about Nepal elections and the agitating parties’ protests and demands. 

“Both sides noted that India-Nepal relations derive their strength and salience from shared history, common cultural ethos and long years of close and intense people to people contact facilitated by open borders. The Indian leadership reiterated the importance of its neighbourhood first policy, and the high priority India attaches to strengthening relations with Nepal in every sphere,” the statement added.  During her meetings, President Bhandari on Tuesday informed Mukherjee and Modi about Nepal’s plan elections and sought India’s goodwill for Nepal’s efforts in constitution implementation. 

President Bhandari’s state visit “provided the opportunity to the two sides to review all aspects of bilateral relations and to reiterate their commitments to take India-Nepal partnership to a new level across diverse sectors for mutual benefit,” the statement added.