Nepali Congress elects Sher Bahadur Deuba as its parliamentary party leader

Kathmandu [Nepal], December 21 (ANI): Nepal's caretaker Prime Minister and president of Nepali Congress Sher Bahadur Deuba became the parliamentary party leader of the party after he defeated the party General Secretary Gagan Kumar Thapa in the election conducted on Wednesday.
Deuba received 64 votes to secure victory while the party's general secretary Gagan Thapa was able to garner 25 votes, The Kathmandu Post reported.
With the win, Deuba will be the Nepali Congress' candidate for the post of prime minister in the new government, as per the daily.
Voting for Nepali Congress party parliamentary leader election was held with 100 per cent turnover.
The 89 lawmakers of the Nepali Congress elected to the House of Representatives voted in the election to choose the party's parliamentary party leader.
Sher Bahadur Deuba and Gagan Thapa had filed their candidacy for the post after the race for the formation of the government started following the general election held on November 20.
The first meeting of Nepal's newly-elected lower House will be held on December 22.
On December 19, the Parliament secretariat announced that the oath-taking ceremony of newly-elected representatives will take place on Thursday at 1 pm (local time). The eldest member (on the basis of age) will be sworn in by the President and other MPs will be sworn in by the eldest member
President Bidhya Devi Bhandari has called on House members to form the government by December 25.
The Nepali Congress held elections to choose its parliamentary leader before the oath-taking ceremony of newly elected members.
Other Opposition parties in Nepal have all elected their Parliamentary Party leader unanimously. The opposition CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist) and the CPN-Maoist Center parliamentary leaders have been selected unchallenged.
The CPN-UML which broke into two factions a year and a half before the general election already presented the Party chairman and erstwhile Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli as its parliamentary party leader. Meanwhile, CPN-Maoist Center has chosen Pushpa Kamal Dahal as an unopposed or unchallenged party leader. (ANI)