Ruling Nepali Congress (NC) and the main opposition CPN-UML will fight for the post of deputy speaker of House of Representatives (HoR) in the election to be held on Friday.
NC's Pushpa Bhusal has registered candidacy for the post on behalf of the ruling coalition on Thursday while UML has decided to field lawmaker Bidya Bhatatrai as its candidate.
Deputy Parliamenatry Party Leader Subash Chandra Nembang has told Setoapti that UML has decided to field Bhattarai, who was elected to the HoR from Kaski-2, for the post. Bhattarai's candidacy will be filed shortly, according to Nembang.
Bhusal registered her candidacy earlier with Dev Gurung of CPN (Maoist Center) proposing her candidacy and Laxmi Kumari Chaudhary fo CPN (Unified Socialist) supporting it.
The ruling coalition has agreed to give the vacant post to the grand old party. Speaker Agni Sapkota was elected HoR member on a CPN (Maoist Center) ticket.
Bhusal had lost to Shiva Maya Tumbahangphe of CPN-UML in the election for deputy speaker in 2017.
The main opposition UML has yet to decide whether to field candidate for the post or not.
The Federal Parliament Secretariat has already published a notice stating that election for deputy speaker will be held on Friday.
The post of deputy speaker is vacant since resignation of the then deputy speaker Shiva Maya Tumbahangphe before election of Agni Sapkota as speaker in January 2020 as she and Sapkota both came from the then ruling CPN. The Constitution requires House speaker and deputy speaker to come from different parties.
