In which I offer more third-hand information...

CNN India is reporting that the Nepali Foreign (Finance?) Minister, a Maoist, is claiming that the resignation of Prachanda (the Maoist Prime Minister) enables the party to retake the moral high ground. They are arguing, as I expected, that the Maoists were not undone by their own overreaching but rather betrayed from within by agents of India acting through their erstwhile coalition partners. Allegations of betrayal are one of the surest ways of firing up any party's restive hardline base. He has, apparently, stated that it's time to "take the fight to the city" - surely meaning Kathmandu, which was largely untouched by the civil war. I have no way to assess the credibility of these threats, but I was planning on staying at home tonight anyways.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister's resignation speech included such tidbits as blaming "foreign powers" for his government's lack of progress. "Foreign powers" is always (always) code for India here. I don't have much reason to believe him - this has always felt like a homegrown crisis to me. That said, there's a great deal I don't know - for such a small country, Nepal has fantastically complex politics which I am as yet struggling to understand.

For the record, I have no idea what procedures this resignation will trigger under Nepali law. Nepal is still writing its true Constitution, and the Interim Constitution is a raggedly ad hoc and incomplete document which (I believe) offers only minimal guidance in a complex and evolving situation such as this. I'm certainly not expecting to be going to work tomorrow, it seems, so I'll be updating throughout the day if the power stays on.

For those following along at home, CNN-IBN is a good source for quick updates, while Nepal News is tolerably fast and a lot more local.