HETAUDA, MAY 7

Three candidates have filed their candidacies for the May 20 by-election for a vacant National Assembly seat from Bagmati Province.

Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa registered his candidacy for the National Assembly seat on behalf of ruling CPN-UML, while Khimlal Devkota filed his candidacy as a common candidate from the Nepali Congress, CPN-Maoist Centre, Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal, and the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led faction of the CPN-UML. Krishna Bahadur Tamang filed his candidacy on behalf of the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party.

Thapa, Devkota, and Tamang reached the Election Office, Hetauda, and registered their candidacies. Thapa was proposed by Bagmati Chief Minister Dormani Poudel and seconded by Social Development Minister Saraswoti Basnet.

Devkota was proposed by CPN-Maoist Centre Bagmati parliamentary party leader Shalikram Jammakattel and seconded by Nepali Congress Bagmati Chief Whip Radha Ghale.

Tamang was proposed by Nepal Workers and Peasants Party Bagmati member Surendraraj Goshain and seconded by lawmaker Sirjana Sayanju.

Thapa is backed by the UML establishment. He was elected to the NA in the last polls from the CPN-MC. The seat was vacated after Thapa joined the CPN-UML. Devkota, was the vice-chair of Bagmati's Policy and Planning Commission.

As per the schedule, complaints and protest can be registered against the candidates on May 8. The EC will publish the names of the candidates on May 12. Candidates will be provided with election symbols on the same day. There are 338 voters, including 110 from Bagmati Provincial Assembly and 238 from local levels. A version of this article appears in the print on May 8, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.