Nepali Congress senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba has said he should be allowed to run the party if the incumbent President Sushil Koirala wishes to become the party parliamentary leader.

Speaking at a party function in the Capital, Deuba said he should be given the opportunity to preside over the party if Koirala wants to take the reins of the party parliamentary (PP) leadership.  

NC is set to hold the election for PP leadership on Sunday. 

Deuba also said that Constituent Assembly and drafting a new constitution should be the NC’s priority and it was imperative that the party stood united.

NC Vice President Ram Chandra Poudel is also vying for the coveted post of PP leader, a natural candidate from the party for the prime ministerial berth.

Meanwhile, NC lawmakers have urged the top three party leaders to come up with a unanimous party parliamentary leader candidate.  

Efforts made by some NC leaders so far to convince the three leaders to find a common ground have not succeeded. 

Koirala and Poudel failed to reach an agreement on PP leadership candidacy during their meeting on Friday evening. Earlier in the day, Poudel had indicated that he would give up his candidacy to ‘avoid further polarisation’ in the party.

EVMs to elect PP leader

KATHMANDU: Nepali Congress (NC) has decided to use Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for its Sunday’s parliamentary party election. 

The decision was taken to avoid invalid votes and ensure fairness, NC Spokesperson Dilendra Prasad Badu said.   

“EVMs will make the election process easier and the results will be out in time.”

The Election Commission has pledged two sets of EVMs and technical assistance to NC for the election.  

In the 2008 Constituent Assembly election, Nepal had used EVMs for the first time as pilot project in NC, meanwhile, has requested its lawmakers to participate in a mock election that will be conducted at the Singha Durbar-based party’s Parliamentary Office on Saturday. 

A total of 194 NC lawmakers will vote on Sunday to elect its parliamentary party leader. 

Since NC’s party statute has a provision to field parliamentary party leader as prime ministerial candidate, all top three party leaders— President Sushil Koirala, senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and Vice President Ram Chandra Poudel— are in the fray.