The left alliance has decided to field 43 candidates in the National Assembly election scheduled for February 7.

According to a task force member Matrika Yadav, the CPN-UML will field 29 candidates and the CPN Maoist Centre 14.

A task force meeting held at UML’s parliamentary party office in Singha Durbar on Wednesday took the decision based on a calculation that the two parties could win 43 seats out of the total 56 in the Upper House. The two parties have taken the decision to field only the seats they could win. The decision made by the task force would be presented at the meeting of the Party Unity Coordination Committee which includes top leaders of the two parties. “We took the decision and now it’s upto the PUCC to finalise it,” Yadav said, adding that they took the vote counts of the two parties as a major basis for sharing the candidates. The meeting of the PUCC would be held after UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli returns from Bangkok. Oli is arriving home on Thursday noon.

The Upper House will have 59 members. While eight candidates will be elected from each of the seven provinces through single transferable vote (STV) election system, three others will be nominated by the President.

The eight candidates must include three women, one Dalit and one disable person or minority. The meeting of the task force of the two left parties formed to prepare for the NA polls, provincial governments and finalising the proportional representation list of the House of Representative has decided to divide the NA seats.

The meeting has also decided to finalise on the other candidates after discussing with other parties.

In Province 1, the UML will field candidates for five seats and the Maoist Centre for one seat; in Province 2, the two parties would field candidates for one seat each; in Province 3, the Maoist Centre will have candidates in two seats with the UML fielding its candidates for six seats; in Province 4, the Maoist Centre will field two and the UML will field four candidates. Similarly in Province 5, the Maoist centre will field two and the UML will have four candidates; in province 6, the Maoist Centre will field three and the UML will have five candidates. And in Province 7, the Maoist Centre will field two candidates and the UML will field four. Once the PUCC finalises the lists, the two parties would select the candidates from their respective provinces.