44 candidates from seven parties file nominations for NA polls

Kathmandu, Jan. 8: Forty-four candidates from seven different political parties have registered their nominations for the National Assembly elections scheduled for January 25. 

Narayan Prasad Bhattarai, Joint Secretary and Spokesperson for the Election Commission, confirmed that 44 leaders filed nominations for 18 seats of the Upper House on Wednesday. 

Two major political parties, Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML, have forged an electoral alliance by fielding common candidates, while the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) is contesting independently. 

The Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal (JSP-N) has fielded candidates for three seats from Madhes Province and extended support to Mahant Thakur, a candidate from the Loktantrik Samajwadi Party, for one seat.

According to the Election Commission, NC has nominated nine candidates, CPN-UML eight, NCP 17, Rastriya Janamorcha four, JSP-N three, Nepal Workers and Peasants Party two, and Loktantrik Samajwadi Party Nepal one.

Bhattarai said the nomination process was completed peacefully across all seven provincial capitals on Wednesday.

Nepali Congress fields nine

Nepali Congress (NC), the largest party, has fielded nine candidates for the NA elections. The NC candidates nominated by its parliamentary board were endorsed by the party’s Central Work Performance Committee. According to Krishna Prasad Paudel, Chief Secretary of the NC party office, the nominations were finalised and approved on Wednesday.

The NC candidates include Sunil Bahadur Thapa (open category) from Koshi Province, Dharmendra Paswan (Dalit), and Ranjit Karna (persons with disabilities/minorities) from Madhes, Gita Devkota (woman) from Bagmati, and Jagat Timilsina (open category) from Gandaki. Other candidates include Basudev Jangali (persons with disabilities/minorities) and Chandra Bahadur KC (open) from Lumbini, Lalit Jung Shahi (open) from Karnali, and Khamba Bahadur Khati (open) from Sudurpaschim. Notably, NC picked one woman candidate. 

Thapa elected unopposed

Sunil Bahadur Thapa (NC) is set to be elected unopposed from Koshi Province, as no other nominations were received for the open category by the deadline. 

The Election Commission will officially announce the election on January 11 after the final list of candidates is published, said Kul GC, EC’s co-spokesperson.  

CPN-UML fields eight candidates

CPN-UML has registered eight candidates, with party chairman KP Sharma Oli finalising the nominations. 

They include Leela Kumari Bhandari (woman) from Sudurpaschim, Meena Singh Rakhal (woman) from Karnali, Ram Kumari Jhakri (woman) from Lumbini, and Samjhana Devkota (woman) from Gandaki. 

Other nominations include Prem Prasad Dangal (open) from Bagmati, Rekha Kumari Jha (woman) and Roshni Meche (woman) from Madhes, and Som Portel (Dalit) from Koshi. Six of the candidates of the party are women.

NCP fields 17 candidates

The Nepal Communist Party (NCP) has fielded 17 candidates, finalised by Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and Co-chair Madhav 

Kumar Nepal.

According to EC, the party has nominated Khem Raj Nepali (Dalit) and Namita Neupane (woman) from Koshi Province, Sashi Kumari Agrawal (woman) Sambhu Paswan Hajari (Dalit), Ramananda Prasad (person with disabilities/minorities) and Laxman Paudel (others) from Madhes Province. 

Likewise, Saroj Kumari Jha (woman) and Prem Prasad Sapkota (others) from Bagmati Province, Goma Luintel Ghimire (woman) and Kapil Lama (others) from Gandaki Province and Durga Kumari Bhandari (woman), Sarjan B.K (persons with disabilities/minorities) and Brihaspati Adhikari (others) from Lumbini.

Similarly, Anju Mahatara (woman) and Buddhi Prasad Sharma (others) from Karnali and Roji Basnet (woman) and Tika Ram Jaisi (others) from Sudurpaschim Province.  Out of 17 candidates, the party has nominated seven women candidates.

Alliance talks fail

The NCP had earlier agreed to form an electoral alliance with NC, UML, and JSP-N. However, the party nominated 17 candidates after failing to reach an agreement.

Senior leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha stated that the party would have joined hands with NC and UML if a fair agreement had been reached, but they did not agree to join the NC-UML alliance as the two allocated it only two seats. 

“We demanded seats in line with our vote weightage, but we could not agree to accept allocation of only two seats,” Shrestha said.

Likewise, Rastriya Janamorcha has nominated Laxmi Baskota (woman) and Shanker Prasad Baral (open) from Gandaki, and Padma Pandit (woman) and Bom Bahadur Kahtri (open) from Lumbini. 

JSP-N has fielded Chandra Kala Devi Shah (woman) and Chameli Devi Das (Dalit) from Madhes, while Nepal Workers and Peasants Party has nominated Kabita Maharjan (woman) and Bikram Dhukuchu (open) from Bagmati.

Loktantrik Samajwadi Party-Nepal (LSP-N) Chair Mahant Thakur has filed his candidacy in the open category from Madhes Province. A decision has already been made to unify JSP-N and LSP-N.

Four seats are up for election in Madhes Province, including those under the Dalit, minorities/persons with disabilities, woman, and others categories.