KATHMANDU, MAY 20

Khimlal Devkota has been elected member of the National Assembly from Bagmati Province in the by-poll held today, wherein he defeated Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa.

Thapa, a CPN-UML candidate, suffered a second blow with the NA results as the Supreme Court earlier had annulled his appointment as a Cabinet Minister.

The SC had deemed the appointment of those without a seat in either of the Houses of the Federal Parliament, as an unconstitutional act and had directed the government to not accord responsibilities to Thapa and six other non-lawmaker ministers.

Devkota had contested the election as the opposition-alliance's common candidate. He secured a lead in vote counts from both local levels as well as provincial assembly.