Nepali Congress President Deuba, General Secretary Thapa file nominations for Parliamentary Party leader

Kathmandu [Nepal], December 20 (ANI): Caretaker Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Nepali Congress (NC) General secretary Gagan Thapa have filed their candidacy for the post of parliamentary party leader as the race for the formation of government starts in Nepal following the November 20 general election.
NC General secretary-Thapa is challenging the party President Deuba in the election scheduled for Wednesday. Both the aspirants reached the parliamentary party office in the administrative centre- Singhadurbar to file their nominations.
Deuba has been proposed for the post by Congress senior leader and former House speaker Ram Chandra Poudel while Purna Bahadur Khadka seconded the proposal. Thapa, 46, has been proposed by Shekhar Koirala and seconded by party vice president Dhanraj Gurung, general secretary Bishwa Prakash Sharma and leader Pradeep Poudel.
The party has slated the election for the parliamentary party for Wednesday from 8 am to 10 am. The party's 89 newly-elected lawmakers are eligible to vote in the election for parliamentary party leader. The candidates will need at least 45 votes to secure the post.
As the Nepali Congress will be electing its parliamentary leader on Wednesday, the opposition CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist) and the CPN-Maoist Center parliamentary leaders have been selected unchallenged.
The opposition 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.
Oli has continued to remain unopposed in decisions that he has been making and other party functionalities.
CPN-Maoist Center- another power-sharing party that never has been on the opposition since its induction into mainstream politics also has Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda as an unopposed or unchallenged party leader.
Though Maoist Center is planning to hold a meeting to discuss the parliamentary leader, it does not have any plans to hold an election for the post. Instead, Dahal has been lobbying other parties to support his bid for the Prime Minister.
"We will pick our parliamentary party leader after the swearing-in of parliamentarians on Thursday. It would be the chairman who would be elected the leader of the parliamentary party, it's obvious," said Shakti Basnet, the party's deputy general secretary.
Political parties which represent in Nepali parliament are subjected to appoint a parliamentary party leader who as per the constitution of the Himalayan Nation is eligible to be the candidate for the post of Prime Minister.
But the government formed after garnering support from two or more parties is mandated to testify the support in parliament within 30 days of its formation. The first meeting of the newly elected House of Representatives has been called for Thursday. (ANI)