Manmohan Singh to meet Karzai, Koirala in last official engagements

NEW DELHI: Outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will have his last official engagements tomorrow when he meets Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Nepal Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, just hours before Narendra Modi takes over.

Both Karzai and Koirala will meet Singh at his official 7, Race Course Road residence, mainly to say goodbye to him, PMO sources said. Karzai will meet Singh at 1 PM and Koirala at 4 PM.

The sources did not rule out the possibility of leaders of some other SAARC countries meeting Singh.

Besides Karzai and Koirala, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay and Bangladesh Speaker Shirin Chaudhury will be here tomorrow to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Modi as Prime Minister.

Karzai, who has worked with Singh over the last 10 years, has already written a letter to him, highlighting that both of them are going to demit office but they will remain in touch.

After meeting Koirala, Singh will go to Rashtrapati Bhawan to attend the swearing-in ceremony at 6 PM. From there, he will directly go to his new abode - 3, Motilal Nehru Marg, the sources said.

The new bungalow has already been renovated and ready for move in by Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur.

Singh resigned as Prime Minister on May 17, a day after BJP won a landslide majority in the Lok Sabha polls.

National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, Principal Secretary to the PM Pulok Chatterjee, Adviser T K A Nair and Communications Adviser Pankaj Pachauri have also resigned and will leave office tomorrow.