Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) leader Ram Sahay Prasad Yadav has started to make political visits after his vice-presidential candidacy has been upheld.
Yadav, who is the official coalition candidate for the election to be held on Friday, met chiefs of different political parties on Monday.
There was confusion about the status of his candidacy after the Election Commission on Friday instructed to only register candidacy of non-Khas-Arya women pointing that Khas-Arya man Ram Chandra Paudel has already been elected president.
Yadav, however, filed nomination on Saturday along with Pramila Yadav of JSP as a security if the former’s candidacy were to be revoked later. But the Election Commission has since clarified that Yadav’s candidacy need not be canceled as it is not necessary for the candidate to be a woman as per the Constitution.
Pramila Yadav has withdrawn her candidacy after the latest clarification by Election Commission in support of Ram Sahay Prasad Yadav even though her name remains listed as a candidate by the Election Commission.
Yadav’s main competitor is likely to be CPN-UML candidate Ashta Laxmi Shakya even though Janamat Party, which is also in the ruling coalition, has fielded its own candidate in Mamta Jha.
Ram Sahay Prasad Yadav met CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman and Prime Minister (PM) Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba, CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal and RPP Chairman Rajendra Lingden on Monday and sought their support in the vice-presidential election.
Dahal, Deuba and Nepal are part of the ruling coalition that has already decided to support JSP candidate for vice-president. But RPP is not part of the coalition and had not taken part in the presidential election held on Thursday.
Lingden wished Yadav for his victory but pointed that the party has yet to decide whether to participate in or boycott the voting process.
