Two provincial parliamentary parties of the CPN-UML are set to elect their chief minister candidates in provinces 1 and 3 on Friday.

As decided by the party’s Standing Committee to elect Parliamentary Party (PP) leaders through secret ballot if they were not selected unanimously, the two provinces are preparing for polls for the purpose. Generally, the PP leader is the chief minister candidate.

The PP of Province 1 will elect its leader in Biratnagar while the PP meeting of Province 3 will convene in Lalitpur on Friday morning.

The second PP meeting of Province 1 would be held at the District Coordination Committee office in Biratnagar at 11am on Friday to elect the leader.

The major chief minister hopefuls in Province 1 are provincial in-charge Bhim Acharya, joint in-charge Sherdhan Rai and leader Jeevan Ghimire.

In the 93-member Provincial Assembly, the UML alone has 51 members even as the party contested the polls in alliance with the CPN (Maoist Centre). The UML is said to have its leaders as the chief minister and speaker while the Maoist party will field one of its members for the deputy speaker post.

According to party vice-chairperson and Province 3 in-charge Asta Laxmi Shakya, the PP meeting would be chaired by oldest assembly member Dormani Upadhyay. Shakya and Rajendra Pande are the two major contenders for the PP leader in the province. The election would take place on the premises of the Tulsilal Memorial Academy Building in Gwarko. The UML PP has 58 members in the 110-strong Province 3 Assembly.

Having its absolute majority, the UML has claimed both the CM and speaker positions in Province 3 while the deputy speaker will be elected for the Maoist party.

The PP meeting in Province 4 has yet to be scheduled. Province 4 in-charge of the UML Kiran Gurung, who is also vying for the PP leader’s post, said the second meeting of the PP would be held after three days.

The party has already elected Shankar Pokhrel as its PP leader in Province 5.