Kathmandu, January 8:

Top leaders of the seven party alliance are set to start joint rallies and mass meetings aimed at raising awareness about the Constituent Assembly election due in April this year. The first mass meeting will be held at the open air theatre in Kathmandu on January 14.

A meeting of the alliance members held at the Nepali Congress party office today named a seven-member monitoring committee, headed by Congress vice-president Prakash Man Singh. The other members include Prakash Man Singh (NC), Coordinator, Krishna Gopal Shrestha (UML), Hitman Shakya (CPN-Maoist), Dil Bahadur Shakya (Janamorcha Nepal), Sanak Man Maharjan (Nepal Workers and Peasants Party), Urmila Pandey (Nepal Sadbhawana Party -Anandidevi), Kumar Belbase (United Left front).

Singh is also the coordinator of NC’s mass meeting main organising committee formed on January 5.

The meeting will be addressed by the top SPA leaders to convey the message that the CA polls will be held by mid-April as decided by a meeting of the high-level coordination committee of the seven parties on January 4.

Today’s meeting also formed a seven-member Stage Management Committee to be coordinated by Dhyan Gobinda Ranjit, NC district president, with each party’s district president as its member.

The parties have also urged all their sister organisations in Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur to make the proposed mass meeting a grand success.

The meeting also decided to organise a three-day publicity campaign beginning January 11 to draw the mass for the first joint rally.

Earlier, the NC had directed its district organisations to coordinate and assist other parties to hold their respective rallies and mass meetings in the districts.

According to the January 4 seven-party decision, the UML is holding mass rally in Biratnagar on January 19, Nepal Sadbhawana Party in Bhairahawa on January 21, CPN-Maoist

in Dhangadi on January 24, Janamorcha Nepal in Janakpur on January 26, Nepal Workers’ and Peasants’ Party in Nepalgunj on January 28 and the United Left Front in Birgunj on January 30.

Another report said the Communist Party of UML’s Kathmandu Valley Coordination Committee today formed a 75-member committee to make the SPA mass meet on Monday in Kathmandu a success.

Leader Ishwor Pokhrel heads the committee that will coordinate the UML’s cadre strength for Monday’s gathering. The NC is coordinating the SPA mass gathering.

The UML also formed four sub-committees under leaders Krishna Gopal Shrestha, Yogesh Bhattarai, Bhanubhakta Dhakal and Rup Narayan Shrestha.

The UML will launch its mass gatherings from four different places in Kathmandu — Bhrikutimandap, Bagbajar, Jamal and Sundhara.