The main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) is preparing to field Pushpa Bhusal against CPN candidate Agni Sapkota in the election for speaker.
NC, that had not contested the election against former speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara, has decided to field candidate this time citing that the ruling party has fielded a murder-accused in the election, according to a central committee member.
"The case of murder-accused Sapkota is sub judice in the Supreme Court. How can we accept a murder-accused in the honorable post?" the central member asked.
Bhusal is a central committee member of NC and its whip in the House of Representatives. She is a graduate in law and has a master's degree in political science. She taught at the Tribhuvan University for 17 years before joining politics.
Sapkota has been accused of abduction and murder of chairman of the management committee of Sri Krishna Secondary School of Tapcha, Kavre Arjun Bahadur Lama during the Maoist insurgency.
Lama was murdered after abduction on April 29, 2005. The SC will hear the murder case and two other petitions against Sapkota on February 5.
The secretariat meeting of CPN held at the PM's official residence in Baluwatar Sunday afternoon took the decision to field Sapkota. The meeting also urged Deputy Speaker Shiva Maya Tumbahangphe to resign.
The ruling party had to ask Deputy Speaker Tumbahangphe, whose allegiance is now with CPN having won the last general election on a CPN-UML ticket, to resign to keep the post of speaker with the party as the Constitution prohibits appointment of speaker and deputy speaker from the same party.
The post of speaker is vacant after Krishna Bahadur Mahara resigned following rape allegation by a federal parliament secretariat staffer.
