Kathmandu, February 18

Along with industrialists making public their plans to vie for different executive committee posts of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) in the upcoming election, election fever has started gripping the largest private sector representing body.

The FNCCI is likely to hold its annual general meeting in mid-April to elect a new executive committee of the organisation.

As FNCCI is the largest private sector representing body and its network is spread across the country, engagement of the private sector — including business leaders, conglomerates and corporate houses — is high in the FNCCI election.

“With the FNCCI AGM nearing, potential candidates for different posts at the new executive committee have begun to make an effort to draw votes in their favour,” informed an industrialist, seeking anonymity.

Among others, stakes are high in the election for the post of senior vice-president because the FNCCI statute has a provision whereby the senior vice-president automatically becomes the president in the next tenure. Based on this provision, current Senior Vice-President of FNCCI Shekhar Golchha will lead the organisation in the upcoming executive committee of FNCCI.

Recently, FNCCI’s Vice-Presidents — Chandra Dhakal and Kishore Pradhan — have publicly announced that they will vie for the post of senior vice-president of FNCCI in the upcoming election.

Following their announcement, panels of both potential candidates for senior-vice president have started their campaigning, as per FNCCI sources.

Dhakal had announced to vie for the senior vice-president post of FNCCI through a public event held in Baglung in last week of December, and Pradhan announced he was competing for the post a few days ago in Biratnagar.

While Kishore Pradhan is backed by industrialists such as Golchha, Pashupati Murarka and Dinesh Pradhan; Chandra Dhakal has the support of Bhawani Rana, Chandi Dhakal and Umesh Lal Shrestha.

Though Chandra, while announcing his plan to vie for the senior vice-president post had said that he was planning to compete for the post at the behest of fellow industrialists and the private sector, he was unwilling to give comments to The Himalayan Times today.

Similarly, Kishore was unavailable for comments despite repeated attempts.

There will be 104 voters from the District and Municipal Chambers, 99 from Commodities and 856 from Associates (including bi-national chambers) in the election.

While district and municipal members have 50 per cent weightage in the FNCCI election, associates members and commodity members have 30 per cent weightage and 20 per cent weightage, respectively.