NWPP withdraws candidacy; Bhandari and Gurung to context for President

Kathmandu / October 27: Two candidates are still in race for second President of the Federal Democratic Republic Nepal.

Only two candidates are contesting for the Presidential berth after another candidate from Nepal Workers’ Peasants’ Party (NWPP) Narayan Maharjan withdrew his claim for the same within the deadline served by the parliamentary secretariat.

Assistant Spokesperson of the Legislature-Parliament’s Secretariat Sudharshan Kuikel confirmed that two candidates were in fray for the President as of 5.00 pm Tuesday.

NWPP’s candidate Maharjan withdrew his candidacy within the deadline set by the secretariat. The election for the post is taking place at the parliament from 11.00 am to 2.00 pm on Wednesday. The presidential election will be held through secret voting process. The vote count will begin from 2.30 pm and the election committee will hand over its result to the Speaker at 4.45 pm the same day.

Speaker Onsari Gharti Magar is set to make public the results of the new presidential poll at the Legislature-Parliament’s meeting scheduled for 5.00 pm on Wednesday, Assistant Spokesperson Kuikel informed.

Nepali Congress leader Kul Bahadur Gurung and CPN-UML’s Vice-Chairperson Bidhya Devi Bhandari have filed their candidatures for the post. Bhandari’s candidacy is proposed by the Unified CPN (Maoist) and seconded by 13 political parties including Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal whereas Gurung’s candidature was proposed by NC general secretary Prakash Man Singh and seconded by another general secretary Krishna Prasad Sitaula.

Meanwhile, NC general secretary Singh has urged NWPP Chairperson Narayan Man Bijukchhe to vote for presidential candidate Gurung. Leader Singh reached Bijukchhe Residence at Kamalbinayak of Bhaktapur today to request the later with NC formal letter to support Gurung in the presidential race.

Matters related to ongoing Terai unrest, Indian unofficial blockade and its complications were discussed during the meeting. NWPP’s central member Prem Suwal shared that the NC general secretary Singh approached his party Chairperson Bijukchhe with formal letter to seek support to presidential candidate Gurung.

He further informed that his party would make official decision whether to support Gurung or to Bhandari in the race on Tuesday evening.

Earlier, a team of UML leaders including Prime Minister and party chief KP Sharma Oli had also reached Bijukchhe Residence to request his party’s support to Bhandari in the race this afternoon. RSS