KATHMANDU, Oct. 14 -- At about 2 pm on April 9, 2008 a group of local leaders affiliated to the Nepali Congress came to Sri Narayan Singh's home in Rajkot in Rautahat district. It was the eve of the 2008 historic Constituent Assembly elections.

The group asked Sri Narayan's son, Trilok Pratap Singh, to join the poll campaign saying 'Netaji has summoned you'. The Netaji [leader] was none other than Nepali Congress election candidate Mohammad Aftab Alam.

Shri Narayan, now a septuagenarian, fell in a dilemma over whether to allow the son, who was just 22, to join the poll campaign.

The voting was to start in a few hours' time. That's why Nepali Congress leaders had come to Singh's house to make their last-ditch efforts to woo voters. Tril...