Nepali Congress leaders 'offer shoe shine services'

Kathmandu  :  The Nepali Congress (NC) party leaders on Tuesday offered shoe shine services to passers-by here aspart of a "political cleansing" campaign organised by late Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai's foundation.

The NC leaders sat in a row holding boot polish and brush in their hands at Naya Baneshwor Chok here. Party leaders Dhanraj Gurung, Chandra Bhandari, Binod Bhattarai and Panchkhal Municipality Mayor Mahesh Kharel, among others, were seen shining the shoes of pedestrians, the Kathmandu Post reported.

The leaders urged the people to take part in the campaign as a "symbolic move to cleanse malpractices and anomalies prevalent in the Nepali politics".

Apart from the NC leaders, human rights activists, political figures and general public also participated in the programme. 

"This is a symbolic step initiated to pass on the values and principles of saintly leaders like Kishunji (Krishna Prasad Bhattarai)," NC leader Binod Bhattarai said, adding, "this programme is the beginning of political purging from ourselves".

More than two dozen people, who sat at Chhakubakku Park in Baneshwor, rose around 30,000 Nepalese rupees. The fund will be spent for public service and for promoting Bhattarai's ideologies, according to the report.