King Gyanendra today declared the end of his 14-month rule grudgingly as the combined force of the 16-day movement for democracy and the international pressure gave him little option but to give in.

The king also invited the seven-party alliance to nominate a prime minister and the council of ministers under Article 35 which in effect means activating the 1991 constitution almost after a gap of 32 months. That deprives the king of the right to dismiss the cabinet on one pretext or another—an exercise he has been repeating since October 2002.

King Gyanendra’s declaration comes a day after he met Karan Singh, a special envoy of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, with a warning that his failure to abdicate in favour of the democratic forces would only invite his downfall fast.

In a nationally televised address, the king also announced that sovereign authority remained with the people and not with the king as sought to be projected during the royal regime. Political parties and the pro-democracy crowds across the country, however, said that the royal proclamation was something that could not be trusted and nothing short of an election to the constituent assembly would satisfy them.

The seven-party alliance is expected to formulate a collective response to the king’s offer, and the international community is in favour of the parties positively taking it.

India welcomed the ‘‘king’s intention to hand over the power to the political parties.’’

The king, who was expected to make the announcement in the morning, delayed it by a few hours apparently seeking some sort of guarantee from the international community which had supported the pro-democracy movement for his continuation as the ‘constitutional monarch’.

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