After a lingering dilemma, senior Nepali Congress leader Krishna Prasad Sitaula will contest the first-past-the-post election from Jhapa constituency-3. He was earlier listed as a top proportional representation election candidate of the NC.

A meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Board on Sunday decided to de-list Sitaula as a PR candidate while assigning him the Jhapa constituency. Dissatisfied at the earlier decision, he had been urging party leaders to field him as a direct election candidate.

It was claimed that senior Congress leaders including Prime Minister and party President Sher Bahadur Deuba wanted to support a Rastriya Prajatantra Party candidate in Jhapa-3 in an electoral seat allocation arrangement within the “democratic” alliance.

Sitaula’s name was taken off the PR list submitted to the Election Commission on Sunday, a senior party leader said. Political parties submitted their revised lists of proportional election candidates on Sunday.

Sitaula was pressed by his supporters to contest direct elections while he himself believed an active leader like him is suited for the race. Sitaula’s supporters Gagan Thapa and Bhimsen Das Pradhan in particular had lobbied hard with the NC leadership to put him in the race. (PR)