After the Nepali Congress’ refusal of a joint all-party struggle against the dissolution of the House of Representatives on December 20, the Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Nepal-led faction of the ruling Nepal Communist Party has announced the second phase of protests.

The national struggle coordination committee’s meeting of the faction held at Paris Danda on Saturday has decided to launch a month-long second phase of struggle plan along with restructuring of the party committees.

“Our protest includes demonstrations, rallies and gatherings from the ward level to the provincial level and national level in Kathmandu,” said Narayan Kaji Shrestha, the coordinator of the National Struggle Committee of Dahal-Nepal faction. “All our protests will be peaceful.”

The protests will last from January 4 till February 5 and they will also be used as an opportunity to strengthen the party organisation throughout the country to conclude the remaining works of the party unity, according to Bijay Poudel, a central committee member and member of the struggle committee.

“Since Nepali Congress is yet to decide on joint struggle we therefore decided to go for a second phase of protest while dialogue with them continues,” said Shrestha. “Our struggle will continue until parliament is reinstated. We expect other parties will join later.”

The protests include orientations, torch rallies, motorbike rallies and reciting and explaining constitutional provisions on the streets among others.

All major parties including Congress, Janata Samajbadi Party and Dahal-Nepal faction of ruling party have started protesting against the ‘unconstitutional’ move of the prime minister KP Sharma Oli led government to dissolve the House of Representatives.

The Janata Samajbadi Party has started its own protest programmes.

The Nepali Congress, on the other hand, is divided with a faction led by Ram Chandra Poudel saying protests should be held while the party has decided to wait for the verdict of the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the dissolution.

The all-party meeting called by Nepali Congress held on December 21 after the prime minister’s move had decided to discuss the joint struggle through the different parties’ respective central committee meetings.