Key Nepal leader Koirala rushed to hospital

KATHMANDU - A day before he was to fly to Singapore for medical tests, Nepal’s former prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala and chief of the republic’s second largest party was rushed to hospital Tuesday for emergency treatment after he complained of breathing difficulties and chest pain.

A team of seven physicians, including two of Koirala’s personal doctors, began treating the 84-year-old who was rushed to the Shahid Gangalal National Heart Centre in the capital where he has been admitted to the intensive care unit.

Leaders of Koirala’s Nepali Congress party, the largest in the ruling alliance and the second biggest in parliament after the Maoists, rushed to the hospital after he was diagnosed to have accumulated water in his lungs.

Koirala, once a heavy smoker, had been admitted to the same hospital last year with similar trouble. On Wednesday, he was supposed to leave for Singapore for medical treatment.

But the flight was postponed after the emergency admission Tuesday.

Despite failing health and his age, Koirala remains Nepal’s kingmaker whose support is necessary for any party to come to power.

Enjoying a stranglehold on his party, the octogenarian this year succeeded in getting his daughter, Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala, appointed deputy prime minister.

He also enjoys close ties with India’s Congress party.