Nepal’s Maoist rebels are committed to multi-party democracy and willing to keep the monarchy ‘if the people choose’ the group’s leader Prachanda said in a report published on Wednesday. The interview with the Maoist leader in India’s The Hindu newspaper came as Nepal staged municipal polls denounced by the rebels and opposition parties as an attempt by King Gyanendra to legitimise his takeover of power a year ago.Prachanda, whose Maoist movement has waged a deadly 10-year ‘people’s war’ to topple the monarchy, said he was willing to hold talks with the king if Gyanendra conceded that his army-backed coup in February 2005 was ‘wrong’. “Let us sit across the table, and then (if) he talks of a free and fair election to a constitutional assembly, then we will be ready to take part,” said Prachanda, which loosely translates as “the fierce one.” Prachanda, whose group took up arms to install a communist republic, said it was now committed to multi-party democracy so long as it was under a “new constitutional framework.” “Our decision on multi-party democracy is a strategically, theoretically developed position,” he said in the wide-ranging interview laying out a roadmap for political change.