With just 10 days to go for the 48th annual general meeting of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) that will elect a new executive committee, election fever has gripped the private sector with two presidential candidates—Bhaskar Raj Rajkarnikar and Pradeep Jung Pandey—intensifying nationwide campaign to garner support. 

Two panels have also announced the names for different positions from their respective groups. 

While Rajkarnikar has been presenting himself as an obvious candidate for being the senior vice-president, another vice-president Pandey is challenging him with conviction to beat.

The Pandey panel has Bhawani Rana as the contender for the post of senior vice-president. Likewise, the other contenders vying for the vice-president posts from Pandey panel are Kishor Pradhan, who represents district and municipality chambers, Dinesh Shrestha, the commodity association represent, and BK Shrestha from the associates of business houses.

Likewise, Rajkarnikar panel has Pashupati Murarka vying for senior vice-president, while DB Basnet is representing the district and municipality chambers, Udaya Raj Pandey from commodity associations and Shekhar Golchha from the associates of business houses for vice president posts.

The former FNCCI presidents who play crucial role to swing the votes in the election are divided.   The current president Suraj Vaidya and former president Ananda Raj Mulmi have formally endorsed the Rajkarnikar panel. 

While, the panel led by Pandey reportedly has support of most of the former FNCCI presidents including Chandi Raj Dhakal, Mahesh Lal Shrestha, Ravi Bhakta Shrestha, Binod Bahadur Shrestha and Kush Kumar Joshi. Apart from Dhakal, all the other past presidents were present at the panel announcement ceremony on Tuesday. The group led by Pandey also announced the name of candidates who will be competing for FNCCI  membership from associates and commodity association’s categories. Of the 16 members to be elected from the associate category,  the Pandey panel announced 14 candidates.

Those competing in the associate category are Bhawani Rana, Anjan Shrestha, Ashok Todi, Birat Thapa, Pradeep Man Vaidya, Akhil Chapagain,  Ajay Mudbari, Anil Kedia, Biplav Man Singh, Bharat Acharya, Kush Prasad Malli, Jhapad Bohora and Bashu Dev Gautam. 

Meanwhile, 11 out of 12 candidates from the Pandey panel have been announced under the commodities associations. They are Umesh Lal Shrestha, Shukunta Lal Hirachan, Anup Bahadur Malla, Kamala Shrestha, Rajan Sharma, Sanjay Giri, Khem Raj Panta, Ramsharan Thapaliya, Navaraj Sharma Timilsina, Ram bahadur Shrestha and Naresh Bahadur Malla.

Meanwhile Raj Kumar Bhattarai, Sandeep Kumar Agrawal, Saurav Jyoti, Shankar Prasad Pandey, Shiva Prasad Ghimire, Ashok Sharma, Bikash Ratna Dhakwa, Govinda Prasad Ghimire and Ishwori Sharma from Rajkarnikar panel are contesting for the position of executive members from commodities associations. Those competing in the associate category from the Rajkarnikar panel are Pashupati Murarka, Chandra Dhakal, Manish Agrawal, Gopal Khanal, Gyanendra Lal Pradhan, Om RajBhandari, Prakash Giri, Ranjit Acharya, Sahil Agrawal, Vijay Vaidya, Ranjeet Acharya, Ram Chandra Shanghai and Ram Krishna Prasai. Both the panels have claimed that Jyotshana Shrestha and Ashok Temani as their candidates for the associates category. 

  The Rajkarnikar team have come up with the slogan 

‘prosperous economy, strong private sector’ for the election, while the Pandey-led team have maintained ‘prosperity, unity: the need of private sector’. 

The FNCCI is holding elections for new executive committee on April 11 and 12. There are 91 commodity associations, 93 district and municipality chambers of commerce and industries and more than 700 associate members of the FNCCI.