Chiefs of all major political parties like President of Nepali Congress and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Chair of CPN-Maoist Centre Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Chair of CPN-UML KP Sharma Oli, and Chair of CPN (Unified Socialist) Madhav Kumar Nepal filed their nomination papers for the parliamentary elections scheduled for November 20.
All the top leaders, except CPN-MC Chair Dahal and CPN (Unified Socialist) Chair Madhav Kumar Nepal have filed their nomination papers from the same constituencies from where they had contested in the last general elections. While Dahal had contested the last general elections from Chitwan-3, Nepal had contested from Kathmandu-2.
Dahal filed his candidacy from Gorkha-2. This is the fourth time Dahal, who is a permanent resident of Chitwan district, has changed his constituency. Bhattarai’s daughter Manushi Yami Bhattarai has filed her candidacy from Kathmandu-7 and is being supported by the ruling parties’ alliance.
Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, filed his nomination papers from his home constituency of Dadeldhura through his spouse Arzu Rana Deuba. Deuba is among a few leaders who have won all parliamentary elections since the restoration of democracy in 1990.
The ruling alliance reached an agreement with Mahantha Thakur-led LSP-N, allotting it 8 parliamentary first-pastthe-post seats and 16 provincial FPTP seats. In accordance with the seat-sharing agreement, out of 165 Parliamentary FPTP seats, the Nepali Congress will get 90 HoR seats, CPN-MC 45 federal seats, CPN (Unified Socialist) 20 seats, and Rastriya Janamorcha 2 seats.
JSP-N, which was unhappy with the ruling alliance over the offer of parliamentary seats, left the alliance and reached a seat-sharing agreement with the CPN-UML. The UML agreed to support the JSP-N for 17 parliamentary seats in Madhes.
UML leaders Ghana Shyam Bhusal and Bhim Bahadur Rawal, who were on a collusion course with party Chair KP Sharma Oli, were not given tickets to contest elections. Bhusal filed his candidacy from Rupandehi-1 constituency as an independent candidate. Oli, meanwhile, filed his candidacy from Jhapa-5 parliamentary seat.
NC’s Amresh Kumar Singh and Minendra Rijal were also denied tickets. Singh filed his candidacy from Sarlahi-4 as an independent candidate. The NC gave ticket to Sujata Koirala from Morang-2 from where Rijal had contested and won in 2017.
