Pradip Paudel, who was candidate for Nepali Congress (NC) general secretary from the faction of Sher Bahadur Deuba in the last general convention, has supported the candidacy of General Secretary Gagan Thapa for parliamentary party leader.
Paudel, who was elected to the House of Representatives (HoR) from Kathmandu-5, has supported Thapa’s candidacy against Deuba for the election to be held on Wednesday.
Thapa is the unanimous candidate for parliamentary party leader from the anti-establishment faction.
Shekhar Koirala, who had lost the runoff for NC president to Sher Bahadur Deuba in the last general convention, proposed Thapa’s candidacy while Vice-president Dhan Raj Gurung another General Secretary Bishwa Prakash Sharma and Paudel are supporters.
The meeting of leaders from the anti-establishment faction on Tuesday earlier decided to field Thapa as the candidate on proposal of Shekhar Koirala.
The leaders reached agreement in a way that leaders including Thapa would support Koirala in the next general convention.
Koirala has said that he has proposed Thapa for parliamentary party leader as he is the candidate of change who can lead transformation.
The anti-establishment faction has claimed that it currently has 32 lawmakers. Another General Secretary Bishwa Prakash Sharma, who is not from the faction, haD also already announced support for Thapa’s candidacy and the faction claims that the number will grow further with support of Sharma and Paudel.
Deuba will contest for parliamentary party leader from the establishment faction.
The grand old party secured a total of 89 House of Representatives (HoR) seats including 57 seats in the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) electoral system and 32 in the Proportional Representation (PR) system.
