Nepali Congress’s Laxmi Rai has filed her candidacy as for the presidential election scheduled for March 13.

The party’s Central Working Committee meeting on Wednesday morning picked Rai, a former lawmaker and former central member, as its presidential candidate to contest against UML’s Bidhya Devi Bhandari.

NC had earlier said it would not contest in presidential election if the left alliance fielded anyone except incumbent President Bidhya Bhandari. However, after UML decided to continue with Bhandari as its candidate, NC fielded one of their own.

The party was dissatisfied with President Bhandari after she withheld the National Assembly member nominations forwarded by the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government.