POKHARA: Deputy Prime Minister and Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal Chairman Kamal Thapa demanded that a referendum be held on whether to reinstate the Hindu state or retain the secularism.

"If we hold the referendum," Thapa said addressing the party's third Kaski district convention in Pokhara today, "Around 80 per cent Nepalis will express their support to the Hindu state."

"It is not the case that political parties here have not understood that there is a strong people's support behind the Hindu state," he wondered, "But, I do not know under whose influence, they made the nation secular."

Thapa, a powerful deputy prime minister in the incumbent government formed after endorsement of the secular republican Constitution, maintained, "Our stand is firm that the Hindu state should be reinstated."

Thapa said his party would struggle for its agendas peacefully as the Constitution has respected differences in opinion.

"The Constitution ensures that you can accomplish your different agendas from within the Constitution," he said, adding the party would become a Number One political force in a near future under the same Constitution.

In a different context, Thapa who also takes the charge of the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development, said the government was hopeful about holding the local elections by mid-December this year.

He said the commission formed to restructure the local bodies under the new Constitution would submit its report by September so that the polls could be held as scheduled.