Nepal's Maoist rebel leader on Sunday criticised a decision by caretaker prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to extend emergency rule and call early elections.
Last week Deuba asked King Gyanendra to dissolve the 205-member lower house of parliament and call elections for November 13, two years ahead of schedule. Deuba on Sunday was sensationally expelled from his own party for three years over the move.

He said that he had to take the surprise drastic step after opposition from his own party to his proposal to extend emergency rule by another six months to control the Maoist rebellion. Opponents argue an extension to the emergency would be undemocratic and unnecessary because existing anti-terrorism laws could be used against the rebels.
The emergency, which was first introduced in November last year to combat the Maoists, expired on Saturday, but is expected to be extended by a royal ordinance on Monday. "Political parties in and outside parliament had protested against the extension of the state emergency and desired talks between the government and the Maoists to resolve the country's problems," Maoist chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachand, said in a statement.
"However, the Deuba government ignored political parties and dissolved the elected parliament to silence them to extend the emergency," he said. "This only exposed him in a naked form as a retrograde force," he added. Bureau Report