Kathmandu: Nepalese president Ram Chandra Paudel was transported to New Delhi to receive advanced care for chest and abdominal issues, officials said. Vice President Ram Sahaya Yadav will stand in for Paudel while he is away, presidential spokesperson Sagar Acharya said.
Paudel, 78, spent five days this month in the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) in Kathmandu after complaining of a chest problem. He was taken to the hospital again with the same problem.
According to Baikuntha Thapaliya, a spokesperson for the Nepali hospital, this time his family and local physicians determined that he should be taken to the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi for "better and advanced treatment".
Paudel, a senior leader of the Nepali Congress party, was elected as the Himalayan nation’s third president in March amid a bitter crisis in the then-ruling coalition. The coalition split after Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, a former Maoist rebel leader, supported Paudel – an opposition candidate – for the post.
His election led to the formation of a new coalition between Dahal’s Maoist Centre party and the centrist Nepali Congress party. Paudel had been treated for chest and abdomen problems in recent years.