Prakash Man Singh has decided to support Sher Bahadur Deuba in the runoff for president in the 14th general convention of Nepali Congress (NC).
The support of Singh, who came third in the first round of voting, may clinch the runoff for Deuba.
Deuba secured 2,258 votes but failed to win in the first round. A total of 4,679 represnetatives cast vote during the voting on Monday. The magical number to get elected was 2,340 and Deuba has fallen short by 82.
Shekhar Koirala came second with 1,702 votes. Singh was third with 379 followed by Bimalendra Nidhi (249) and Kalyan Gurung (22). Seventy-six votes were invalid.
Singh was with Deuba ever since the latter left the Girija Prasad Koirala camp and challenged Koirala. He left NC after Deuba split the party to form NC (Democratic) and later became Deuba's vice-president.
But he changed camp and was elected general secretary from the Sushil Koirala camp in the 12th general convention held after NC (Democratic) reunified with NC. Singh remained with the erstwhile Koirala camp, that was led by Ram Chandra Paudel after demise of Sushil, even in the 13th general convention.
He remained in the Paudel faction and sought to become consensus candidate for president from the faction even in this general convention. But the faction could not agree on the consensus candidate and Shekhar Koirala and Singh both contested for the top post.
Singh has now allied with Deuba for the runoff after no candidate managed to get majority in the first round of voting.
