An informal meeting of the party´s office bearers and senior leaders, held at the residence of the NC President Sushil Koirala, concluded that the party will continue with Paudel´s candidacy.[break]
“The meeting has decided not to withdraw the party´s candidacy but face the voting in the parliament,” said NC leader Arjun Narsingh KC. The meeting, however, decided to withdraw the candidacy if Paudel is voted out by majority in the parliament in the next round of prime ministerial poll.
The decision comes at a time when the UCPN (Maoist) and CPN-UML have decided to vote against Paudel if NC did not withdraw his candidacy in the 17th round of poll that will be held at the start of the new House session.
Leaders present at the meeting were of the opinion that the party should field its candidate even if only to see the UML´s position toward NC. Most of the leaders present at the meeting had expressed dissatisfaction over UML´s latest decision not to support NC even as the party supported UML on numerous occasions in the past.
The party´s office bearers and about a dozen influential Central Working Committee (CWC) members including President Koirala, prime ministerial candidate Paudel, General Secretary Prakash Man Singh, Treasurer Chitra Lekha Yadav, Krishna Sitaula, Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, Shekhar Koirala and Shashank Koirala were present at the meeting.
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