Kathmandu, April 6

Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba was elected NC’s Parliamentary Party leader today.

Deuba, a three time Prime Minister, polled 139 votes against his rival Ramchandra Paudel’s 67 votes.

A total of 206 votes were cast in the election. NC lawmaker   Narahari Acharya did not take part in the election due to illness.

Election was held for the Parliamentary Party leader as Paudel faction’s attempt to persuade Deuba to leave the post of Parliamentary Party leader for Paudel failed.

As per NC Parliamentary Party statute, a winning candidate needs to win more than 50 per cent votes. Deuba, who had defeated Paudel even in the election held for party presidency a month ago, polled 68 per cent votes.

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Member of Election Committee Guru Raj Ghimire, who is also a Central Committee member of the party, said the election for Parliamentary Party leader was held smoothly.

The NC had formed a three-member Election Committee under CC member Ramesh Rijal. Other members of the committee were CC member Surendra Pandey and Ghimire.

NC lawmaker Surendra Chaudhari, who had earlier announced that he had quit the party, also took part in the voting. With this victory, Deuba has emerged as the most powerful leader of the NC. Parliamentary Party leader naturally claims to lead the government when the party is faced with such an opportunity.

When election for the Parliamentary Party leader was held after the second Constituent Assembly, Deuba lost the election to then party president Sushil Koirala who bagged 105 votes against Deuba’s 89.

Constitution Council had not been able to hold its meeting, as the principal opposition party had no Parliamentary Party leader, who is also a member of the Constitution Council.

When asked what his role would be in the party now, Paudel told THT that he did not get the role he sought within the party. When asked if he still advocated one leader, one post within the party, Paudel said, “Let’s see how party work is handled (by the leadership).”

NC General Secretary Shashank Koirala said the party had an important role to play in national politics and the party could do that only if the two senior leaders -- Deuba and Paudel -- could work in the spirit of unity. “Deuba has to deal with the challenges,” he said, “My role would be to promote unity between the two leaders.”

Koirala said if senior leaders worked in the spirit of unity that would give the party strength in dealing with national issues. “We have a challenge to settle our national issues. We also need to improve our relations with India and the international community. We can play an important role in doing all these things only when we can give message of unity to others,” Koirala added.

Nominations for 22 members of the Executive Committee of NC’s Parliamentary Party have to be filed tomorrow. The election for the same will take place on Friday.

PP leader can nominate nine members to the Executive Committee of the Parliamentary Party.