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Kathmandu, June 5 (IANS) Twenty-two opposition parties in Nepal Tuesday decided to organise a major "show of strength" in the capital Friday against the "unilateral" declaration of fresh parliamentary polls by the government. A meeting here of leaders of the 22 parties decided to bring in as many as 100,000 people to the anti-government rally. A mass meeting will be organised after the rally, Xinhua reported. The meeting headed by Nepali Congress general secretary Prakash Man Singh described the government's election decision as "unconstitutional and autocratic". According to nepalnews.com, a meeting of the opposition parties will be held Wednesday at the headquarters of the Communist Party Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML). The meeting will work out details of the anti-government protests, a statement issued by the Nepali Congress said. Leaders of the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML have been warning of street protests to topple the government if Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai refused to step down immediately. The prime minister has called for fresh elections in six months after politicians failed to meet a deadline in May to agree to a new constitution. Baburam Bhattarai said he was left with no choice after four years of deadlock. Nepal no longer has a sitting parliament or a constitution. The parliament has been extended four times since 2008 while a special assembly has struggled to reach consensus over the drafting of a new constitution. Political parties have been unable to agree on the issue of whether states in a new federal system should be along ethnic lines, BBC reported.
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