KATHMANDU, April 6: Main opposition party in Parliament, Nepali Congress (NC), is holding an election to pick its parliamentary party leader, on Wednesday.
Party President Sher Bahadur Deuba and senior party leader Ram Chandra Paudel have registered their candidacies for the post.
The largest political party in Parliament has 207 members of parliament. A candidate must secure at least 104 votes to get elected to the post of parliamentary party leader.
Candiates to receive election symbol today
The voting process is scheduled to begin from 11 am and end at 2 pm.
The election to pick the main opposition leader in Parliament has been watched with much interest outside the NC as well. In the absence of a main opposition leader in Parliament since the past two months, the Constitution Council has been unable to take any decision for lack of a quorum. The post of NC parliamentary party leader, as also the main opposition leader, fell vacant upon the demise of then PP leader and NC president Sushil Koirala in February.
Registering their candidacies at the NC parliamentary party office at Singha Durbar Tuesday, both Deuba and Paudel insisted that they were running in order to keep the party intact. Deuba has claimed that his election to the post will help in the implementation of the new constitution, which was promulgated under a NC-led government. Paudel for his part said that he should be elected to the post for balancing power and distributing responsibility within the party.
Paudel and Deuba had already contested for PP leader back in 2009, when Deuba lost the race.
But party leaders claim that Deuba has now improved his position and is in a comfortable position to bag the post. Deuba had also lost the PP leader election against the late Sushil Koirala in 2014, with a 16-vote difference, following the second Constituent Assembly election.
But dozens of lawmakers changed camp during the party general convention last month. And more than half a dozen from the Paudel panel joined the Deuba faction after the convention. The Krishna Sitaula faction in the party, which was a splinter from the Paudel faction, has already decided to vote for Deuba in the PP leader race. This third faction is believed to have around eight lawmakers under its sway. Leaders close to Deuba claim that around 30 lawmakers have joined the Deuba camp from the Paudel camp.
Padma Narayan Chaudhari, who was a candidate for central working committee member from the Paudel panel in the general convention, has seconded Deuba's candidacy during the nomination. Farmullah Mansoor had proposed Deuba's candidacy. On the other hand, Prakash Man Singh was the proposer of Paudel's candidacy and Shashanka Koirala seconded it.
