Four candidates contesting for NC PP leader; lobbying starts

The number of candidates contesting for the post of parliamentary party leader in Nepali Congress has reached four with Suprabha Ghimire announcing her candidacy, Thursday.

Ghimire is backed by leaders like Pradip Giri, Nara Hari Acharya, Purna Bahadur Khadka, Deep Kumar Upadhyaya and youth leader Gagan Thapa, among others.

Senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba, party vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel and general secretary Kul Bahadur Gurung had already announced their candidacy.

All four leaders have intensified negotiations and lobbying to garner support on their side for the elections scheduled to take place Saturday afternoon.

Party president Girija Prasad Koirala has not supported any candidates vocally. However, he is likely throw his weight behind Deuba returning Deuba’s ‘favour’ while proposing Sujata Koirala’s name to lead the NC team in the government.

Although who will win the election is not certain at this point, it is certain that the first round of elections will not determine the leader. According to the provisions in NC PP statute a candidate should get more than 50 % votes to be elected PP leader. If none of the candidates secure more than 50 % of the votes, the top two candidates will contest in the second round of elections. nepalnews.com Jun 19 09

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