The Ram Chandra Paudel faction of Nepali Congress (NC) has failed to agree on consensus candidate for president in the 14th general convention and Prakash Man Singh and Shekhar Koirala both will contest for the top post.
Singh announced his candidacy organizing a program after start of nomination process on Saturday. Sujata Koirala, Shekhar's first cousin and daughter of former prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala, will contest for vice-president from Singh's team.
Shekhar, meanwhile, is set to contest with Dhan Raj Gurung and Chandra Bhandari as candidates for vice-presidents, and Gagan Thapa and Minendra Rijal for general secretaries.
NC Spokesperson Bishwa Prakash Sharma was earlier likely to contest for general secretary from Shekhar's team with Thapa as fellow candidate for the post but Sharma could not be accommodated in the team in the last hour.
Shekhar will file his candidacy after finalizing candidates for other posts.
NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba has decided to seek relection. But he is struggling to name candidates from his panel for office-bearers. The fact that Krishna Sitaula, who supported Deuba in the second round of voting for president in the last general convention, is demanding one general secretary in return for supporting him this time has made things more difficult for Deuba.
Bimalendra Nidhi, Deuba's lieutenant for decades, also looks set to contest for the top post.
