Unite to defeat palace's divide and rule strategy:Home Minister

Kathmandu, Sep 11 (UNI) Nepal's Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula has called for the country's various political parties to unite to counter the Royal Palace's old strategy of divide and rule, noting they had no other choice.

"The bitterness between the parties cannot help achieve the objective of the people's aspiration for the elections", media reports today quoted the Minister as saying.

Asserting a Constituent Assembly was the "overarching goal of the April uprising, he said the government plans to write a new Constitution within a year and not to extend the constituent assembly by more than two years.

The Home Minster urged all the people to help create the election-friendly environment.

Nepal is holding elections to the constituent Assembly on November 22 to write a new constitution and decide the future of monarchy, which has ruled the Himalayan nation 239 years.

All the major political parties including the Nepali Congress, CPN, UML and Maoists have already said that they would go for a republican system implying monarchy is certain to be abolished.

UNI