Nepal's agitating parties vote for Bhandari in presidential election

Kathmandu [Nepal], Mar 13 (ANI): The Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal (RJP-N) and the Federal Socialist Forum Nepal (FSFN) who went on a marathon protest demanding the amendment in the country's constitution recently, voted for Left alliance supported candidate and incumbent president Bidhya Devi Bhandari in the ongoing presidential elections.

"One of the factor driving us to vote for (Bidhya Bhandari) was the unconditional support which the CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist) have supported us in province no. 2 State Chief's election. Then we also decided to vote for the party in this election and this is the main reason for us to vote," Rajendra Mahato, member of the presidential forum of the RJP-N told reporters after casting his vote.

The RJP-N which had stayed out of the current Left government for long demanding the amendment is also now expected to board the government with the voting for the CPN-UML's candidate.

"There have been no serious talks over the issue of going on board the government; we only have received the proposal from the Prime Minister (K.P. Sharma Oli) in regards to our coordinator Mahantha Thakur. But no progress has been made yet and there is a lot of time ahead to discuss it. We still are to discuss the issue of the constitutional amendment and if we could reach the point of agreement then we can think over it," Mahato added.

The election for the first President of Federal Nepal is underway, where President Bhandari is contesting for her second term in office and is challenged by the Nepali Congress candidate Laxmi Rai.

The voting which begun from 10 a.m. in the office of the Election Commission of Nepal (ECP) in Kathmandu will end by 3 p.m., with vote counting to start swiftly and results expected by late Tuesday evening. (ANI)