Indra Bahadur Baniya has been elected as the leader of the Nepali Congress parliamentary party in Bagmati province.
Baniya, who is also the NC’s Bagmati president, won the parliamentary party leader election held on Wednesday, defeating Chief Minister Bahadur Singh Lama Tamang.
Out of 37 provincial assembly members, 22 voted for Baniya while 14 voted for Chief Minister Lama. One vote was declared invalid. A dispute arose when one member wrote a name instead of stamping the ballot, and that vote was considered invalid.
Provincial lawmaker Min Krishna Maharjan informed Setopati about Baniya's election as the parliamentary party leader.
Earlier, after the provincial assembly elections in November 2022, an election for NC parliamentary party leader was held on December 28. At that time too, the contest was between Lama and Baniya. Both came from construction business backgrounds and were close to NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba.
However, Baniya, who was also the province president, contested the election with the support of leader Shekhar Koirala and General Secretary Gagan Thapa after failing to secure Deuba's support.
At that time, Baniya received 16 votes while Lama secured 21 votes.
After two and a half years, Baniya has managed to reverse the votes in his favor and become the parliamentary party leader.
Chief Minister Lama was supported by Kundan Raj Kafle, Uttam Joshi, Laxmi Shrestha, Ramesh Mahat, Hariprabha Khadgi, Ram Kumar Pahadi, Chhetra Bahadur Bamjan, Geeta Gurung, Masina Khadka, Tirtha Lama, Ram Krishna Chitrakar, Maya Shrestha, Govinda Lamsal, and Samita Khadgi.
On the other hand, Indra Bahadur Baniya, Shivaraj Adhikari, Kanchan Chandra Bade, Deependra Shrestha, Pukar Maharjan, Binu Rayamajhi Paudel, Yamuna Devi Shrestha, Urmila Nepal KC, Shanta Dhakal, Prabhat Tamang, Chhiring Dorje Lama, Meena Parajuli, Yangkila Sherpa, Min Krishna Maharjan, Bimal Thakuri, Madu Kumar Shrestha, Suraj Chandra Lamichhane, Suresh Shrestha, Shreeram Lamichhane, Suna Pariyar, Shyam Khadka, and Krishna Bahadur Tamang opposed the chief minister.
Five ministers in the government had resigned and voted against Chief Minister Lama.
Despite losing the election for parliamentary party leader, Lama has said that he will not resign as chief minister. He appointed three provincial assembly members as ministers on Wednesday itself.
