CPN (Maoist Center) has decided to field Narayan Dahal as its candidate for National Assembly chair.
Deputy General Secretary of Maoist Center Barsha Man Pun, who is also the finance minister, said that a meeting of Maoist office-bearers held at the prime minister’s residence in Baluwatar on Sunday decided to field Dahal, who is first cousin of Maoist Chairman and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, as the party’s candidate for National Assembly chair.
Dahal was nominated National Assembly member by the president two years ago.
National Assembly Vice-chair Urmila Aryal and Jhakku Subedi were other aspirants for the post from the party. Dahal had lobbied all Maoist office-bearers to make him the candidate for National Assembly chair.
Earlier, a Maoist standing committee meeting had decided to make Dahal the joint in-charge of Bagmati province. But the decision wasn’t even made public after Deputy General Secretary Janardan Sharma opposed it. However, PM Dahal decided to field him as the party’s candidate for National Assembly chair, considered an even more important post, on Sunday.
Given the number of seats the current ruling coalition has in the Upper House, Dahal is almost certain to be elected National Assembly chair. Maoist Center is the largest party in the Upper House with 17 seats while CPN-UML is the third largest with 10. CPN (Unified Socialist), formed after splitting from UML, has eight seats while Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) has three.
NC is the second largest party with 16 seats, while Loktantrik Samajwadi Party and Rastriya Janamorcha have one each. One seat to be nominated by the president on recommendation of the government remains vacant.
Only Chairman Dahal was in favor of fielding him as the party's candidate, while Jhakku Subedi was supported by Deputy General Secretary Pun and other leaders of the party. Subedi was elected to the National Assembly from Rolpa on January 25.
During the Maoist parliamentary party meeting held on Saturday, most of the lawmakers had opined that a lawmaker with a six-year term should be made the candidate for National Assembly chair. Chairman Dahal had also responded positively to it. But he decided to field Dahal, who has only four years left of his term.
With Maoist Center picking its candidate for National Assembly chair, UML will have to field a female candidate for vice-chair from the coalition. As per the eight-point agreement signed by the four coalition parties on Monday, UML will get the post of National Assembly vice-chair. If the agreement is implemented, current National Assembly Vice-chair Aryal will have to resign from her post. Aryal was elected National Assembly vice-chair a year ago.
Nepali Congress has decided to field Yuvaraj Sharma in the election for National Assembly chair, which is set to take place on Tuesday.
