Nepali Congress to field candidate for the post of President

Nepali Congress Party has said that it will field its candidate for the upcoming election for the post of president, a senior party leader said on Monday.

The election for the post of president is likely to be held around mid-February, though the Election Commission has not yet fixed the date.

As President Bidya Bhandari is retiring from the top post around mid-March there is a practice of holding the presidential election one month prior to the termination of her term.

Nepali Congress leader Prakash Man Singh talking to PTI said the party had decided to run for the presidential election to be held soon and that NC would now focus its attention there.

Nepali Congress being the largest party in the House of Representatives is qualified enough to field its candidate for the post, he pointed out.

Ganesh Shah, secretary of the ruling CPN-Maoist Centre, said his party was ready to forge consensus among the political parties for the post of president.

''We will try to build consensus even with the opposition parties, including Nepali Congress, for this purpose,'' Shah said.

Earlier during the election held for the post of Speaker of the House of Representatives on January 19, Nepali Congress lost the election to the ruling CPN-UML candidate.

UML candidate Dev Raj Ghimire has been elected to the post of Speaker of the HoR by defeating NC candidate Ishwori Neupane. Ghimire received 167 votes against 97 votes for Neupane.

CPN-UML has claimed that being the largest member of the ruling alliance, it is eligible for the post of president.

Therefore, tough competition is likely for the presidential election between the opposition Nepali Congress and the ruling CPN-UML.

Nepali Congress, despite being the opposition, had cast its vote in favour of Prachanda when the CPN-Maoist Centre chairperson sought a vote of confidence in the HoR.

The move by the opposition party is seen as a strategy to woo Prachanda's favour during the presidential election.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)