Nepal, March 17 -- At a press meet on Saturday, the Socialist Front Nepal, a grouping of four leftist parties-the CPN (Maoist Centre), the CPN (Unified Socialist), the Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal and the Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal-announced a series of rallies. The rallies, to be held in Kathmandu on March 28, are aimed at foiling "the conspiracies of reactionary forces" in order to "safeguard the republican set-up". The rallies are a reaction to the pro-royalist marches in the national capital last Sunday. That day's marches saw better-then-expected public support, enthusing the pro-monarchy forces. While the country's two biggest pro-republican parties-the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML-have been institutionally s...