Thousands of people marched through Kathmandu on Tuesday as a faction of the ruling communists protested against the dissolution of Nepal's parliament, dpa news said today. The protesters, who defied the local administration’s coronavirus restrictions on mass gatherings, displayed placards and chanted slogans against Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli and President Bidya Devi Bhandari, and demanded reinstatement of the parliament. On December 20, Bhandari, acting on Oli's recommendation, dissolved the parliament and announced early general elections for April 30 and May 10. Oli, who won by a landslide in 2017, said he wanted to avoid a vote of no confidence which he claimed would have created a political vacuum and push the country toward another cycle of political instability. The decision has been challenged with several petitions at the Supreme Court. “We have faith in the Supreme Court but we have more faith and hopes in the Nepali people. That is the reason we are protesting,” Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the leader of the protesting faction of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP), said. Following the parliament's dissolution, the ruling NCP split and both groups have described themselves as the legitimate faction and staked claims over the party’s election symbol and its name. The deepening political crisis and fresh waves of protests have raised fears of mass transmission of the coronavirus amid reports of a drastic decrease testing. Nepal has 259,548 Covid-19 cases with 1,840 confirmed deaths.