The UCPN (Maoist)-led alliance of 30 political parties on Saturday organised a mass assembly in Khula Manch of Kathmandu, described by themselves as a show of strength.

Khula Manch looked full of cadres of UCPN (Maoist) and other political parties, who came to Kathmandu from across the country. “We brought people from almost every part of Nepal,” said the alliance’s spokesperson Prem Bahadur Singh.

The UCPN (Maoist) Chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Vice Chair Baburam Bhattarai, the Madhesi Front leader Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar, among other leaders, addressed the mass assembly.

Opposition party cadres listened to their leaders even from outside Khula Manch, where a little more than 35,000 people can fit it. The opposition alliance had been claiming that more than 200,000 people would flock to Kathmandu for a mass rally.

Before the mass assembly, opposition parties had carried rallies from different parts of Kathmandu Valley. All these rallies later converged at Khula Manch. As one rally tried to pass through a restricted area, a short spell of clash occurred between police and protestors New Baneswor area. Police had resorted to baton charging and tear-gas to take situation under control. Several policemen, protestors and onlookers have been injured in the clash.

The opposition Maoist-Madhesi and the ruling NC-UML have not held talks after formation on 25 January of a panel in the Constituent Assembly (CA) to hold a vote on the disputed issues of the new constitution. As the opposition did not budge from their stance of resuming talks without dissolution of the panel, the CA Chair Subhas Nembang has put on hold the voting process.