Shashanka Koirala demands referendum on Hindu state

CHITWAN: Nepali Congress General Secretary Shashanka Koirala said a referendum should decide whether Nepal should be a Hindu state again.

Speaking at a press meet organised by the Nepal Press Union, Chitwan chapter, in Bharatpur today, Koirala said he was for reestablishing the Hindu state also because he was elected the lawmaker with majority Hindu votes.

"The party should not continue backing secularism as the then party President Girija Prasad Koirala had extended support to the idea due to some compulsion," Koirala said Girija Prasad was compelled for the same as the then rebel force Maoists should have been brought to the political mainstream then.

Koirala, thus, demanded that the party's next Central Working Committee meeting, scheduled for October 20, should form its official opinion about secularism.

Meanwhile, speaking in a different context, Koirala said successful elections at local, provincial and federal levels was a must to ensure Constitution implementation.

Major three political forces including the Nepali Congress, the CPN-UML and the CPN Maoist Centre should make an understanding for the same, he suggested.