Ruling parties share candidacy, UML fields all 19 candidates

By Ram Prasad Dahal,Kathmandu, Jan. 8: The political parties on Sunday remained busy picking their candidates for the National Assembly election as the Election Commission has fixed Monday for filing nominations for the poll. 

The EC has scheduled the election for the 19 seats of the NA for January 25.

National Assembly, the Upper House of the Federal Parliament, has 59 members, one-third of them get elected every two years. On March 4 this year, the term of the 20 members is expiring, and 19 of them will be elected on January 25 and one will be nominated by the President. 

The ruling six parties succeeded in dividing the seats among them after holding marathon meetings on Saturday and Sunday while the main opposition, the CPN-UML finalised the names of its candidates. 

A meeting of the ruling parties- the Nepali Congress, the CPN (Maoist Centre), the CPN (Unified Socialist), Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal, Janamorcha and Janamat Party held on Sunday finalised the seat-sharing.

As per the agreement, NC will get 10 seats, the CPN (Maoist Centre) will get six, the CPN (Unified Socialist) two and the Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal one seat.  However, the Janamorcha and Janamat Party did not get any seats for the Upper House polls. After sealing the deal, the ruling CPN (Maoist Centre) and Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal finalised the names of their candidates on Sunday.

The NC is nominating one seat each in Koshi Province, Madhes Province, Karnali and Lumbini and two each in Bagmati Province, Gandaki and Sudurpashchim Province.

The CPN-Maoist Centre got one seat each in Koshi, Bagmati, Gandaki, Lumbini, Karnali and Sudurpashchim Province. The Unified Socialist bagged one seat each in Bagmati and Karnali Province. The Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal got one seat in Madhes.

"The meeting of the ruling parties also agreed to file their candidacies jointly as per agreement. We will discuss the issue in the respective parties separately and finalise the names of candidates," said NC chief whip Ramesh Lekhak after the meeting.

However, the Parliamentary Board of the Nepali Congress decided to pick only one of its 10 candidates because of factional feud by 10 pm Sunday. 

NC decided to pick Krishna Sitaula from Koshi Province but was unable to decide other candidates by 10 pm Sunday.  After the faction led by Dr. Shekhar Koirala demanded four of the 10 seats to the leaders loyal to him, and party president Sher Bahadur Deuba denied it, Koirala left the meeting venue, resulting in the delay in selecting the candidates.

After Koirala, who is not in the parliamentary board, left the meeting venue, and other leaders were busy discussing the issue, party president Deuba again called Dr. Koirala and the two were holding meeting by the time this news was filed. 

But other ruling parties including the CPN (Maoist Centre) fianalised their candidates. A meeting of the office bearers of the CPN (Maoist Centre) held at the official residence of Prime Minister and the party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' in Baluwatar picked the names of six candidates. 

After the meeting, party secretary Devendra Paudel informed that Champa Devi Karki from Koshi Province, Shrikrishna Adhikari from Bagmati Province, Manarupa Sharma from Gandaki Province, Jhakku Subedi from Lumbini Province, Bishnu Bishwakarma from Karnali Province and Renu Chand from Sudurpaschim Province are the candidates from the Maoist Centre.

The CPN (Unified Socialist) entrusted the responsibility to party chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal, vice chairman Rajendra Pandey and general secretary Ghanashyam Bhusal to finalise the names of the party candidates. A meeting of the party secretariat held on Sunday decided to do so, informed spokesperson Jagannath Khatiwada. 

The Janata Samajwadi party has picked Puja Chaudhary (Rautahat) as its candidate. A meeting of the party’s executive committee picked her name, said party spokesperson Manis Suman after the meeting.

The main opposition party CPN-UML finalised the names of all its 19 candidates at a meeting of the party secretariat on Sunday.

After the meeting, party general secretary Shankar Pokharel informed that Rukmini Koirala (Sunsari) and Parshuram Adhikari (Bhojpur) will be the candidates in Koshi Province. Usha Devi Tharuni (Parsa) and Dr. Arjun Kumar Singh Rajput (Mahottari) are picked from the  Madhes Province and Rochkumari Chaulagai (Dolakha) and Trilochan Nirmal Poudel (Chitwan) from Bagmati. Likewise, Bibek Devkota (Kathmandu) is picked from the disabled minorities in Bagmati and Dhruba Raj Bishwakarma (Dhading) as the Dalit representative.

In Gandaki Province, Yamanda Devkota (Gorkha), Chakra Bahadur Parajuli (Syangja) and Hemandra Sherchan (Mustang) will be contesting the NA election from the CPN-UML.

In Lumbini Province, Tulsa Kumari KC (Dang) and Jhapendra Bahadur Gharti Chhetri (Palpa) are picked while in Karnali Province, Bimala Kumari Shahi (Humla), Dilli Prasad Bhatta (Mugu) and Hikmat BK (Dailekh) are UML candidates. 

In Sudurpashchim Province, Sabitra Devi Ghimire (Kailali), Ishwari Prasad Kharel (Kanchanpur) and Ram Chandra Joshi (Kailali) will contest the election from the UML. 

The Rastriya Prajatantra Party also finalised its nine candidates.

A meeting of the party work execution committee held on Sunday finalised the names, informed party spokesperson Mohan Shrestha.

The party said Uddav Paudel for Koshi, Hemjung Gurung, Nanu Nagarkoti, Bharatmani Bhatta and Purna Bahadur Bishwokarma are candidates from Bagmati Province. 

It also picked Gaumaya Shrestha and Rom Bahadur Bhanadri for Gandaki and Niranjan Thapa and Bijaya Laxmi Singh for Lumbini provinces.