Voting in the runoff for president in the 14th general convention of Nepali Congress (NC) has started Tuesday afternoon.
Voting started at 3:30 in the afternoon and is expected to finish by 7:30 in the evening.
The election for president went into the second round after Shekhar Koirala decided to contest the runoff despite Prakash Man Singh and Bimalendra Nidhi opting to support Sher Bahadur Deuba.
Deuba secured 2,258 votes but failed to win outright 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 fell 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.
Organizing a press conference at a hotel in Kathmandu Tuesday afternoon, Koirala refuted the reports abut him withdrawing from the runoff and urged the general convention representatives to vote exercising wisdom. "Take decision exercising wisdom and listening to your conscience," Koirala requested the voters. "I have confidence that I can change the future of Nepal with your one vote. I will be victorious after the second round of voting."
He urged the representatives to vote for revival of the party forgetting factions and sub-factions. "I have been talking about transformation and revitalization till today. I have thought about taking that to logical conclusion. We will do that with the team that we have made," he stated.
The support of Singh and Nidhi seems to have all but clinched the runoff for Deuba. Nidhi is Deuba's long-time lieutenant but challenged Deuba in the 14th general convention pointing that Deuba had promised during the last general convention to back him for the top post this time. Singh was also with Deuba for a long time before changing camps over a decade back to join the then Koirala faction ahead of the 12th general convention.
