KATHMANDU: Nepali Congress central leader Khum Bahadur Khadka is at the top as Nepali Congress Election Committee counted meagre 150 votes of the elections held for the party’s Central Working Committee membership on Wednesday.

Khadka, who lent support to Sher Bahadur Deuba for the race of party presidency, has garnered 94 votes so far. He is followed by outgoing General Secretary Prakash Man Singh and Shekhar Koirala of the Ram Chandra Paudel panel.

Bimalendra Nidhi of the Deuba panel, Pradeep Giri, youth leader Pradeep Paudel, Mahesh Acharya, Bal Krishna Khand, Kul Bahadur Gurung and Purna Bahadur Khadka have featured in the top ten list.

The vote count for the election for 25 CWC members under open category started today. The counting, however, is moving ahead in a snail's pace as sorting the ballot papers with 90 candidates proved to be cumbersome.

Vote count till this evening

1. Khum Bahadur Khadka: 94

2. Prakash Man Singh: 90

3. Shekhar Koirala: 89

4. Bimalendra Nidhi: 88

5. Pradeep Giri: 88

6. Pradeep Paudel: 87

7. Mahesh Acharya: 87

8. Bal Krishna Khand: 86

9. Kul Bahadur Gurung: 85

10. Purna Bahadur Khadka: 84

11. Ramesh Lekhak: 79

12. Shankar Bhandari: 78

13. Sujata Koirala: 78

14. Prakash Sharan Mahat: 77

15. Minendra Rijal: 77

16. Gopal Man Shrestha: 76

17. Narayan Khadka: 75

18. Ram Sharan Mahat: 74

19. Bishwa Prakash Sharma: 74

20. Bal Bahadur KC: 73

21. Gyanendra Bahadur Karki: 73

22. NP Saud: 71

23. Chandra Bhandari: 71

24. Dhan Raj Gurung: 70

25. Udaya Shamsher Rana: 68

26. Dina Mahalaxmi Upadhyaya: 66

27. Badri Pandey: 66

28. Jip Chhiring Lama: 62

29. Padma Narayan Chaudhary: 60

30. Manmohan Bhattarai: 59

31. Govinda Raj Pokharel: 56

32. Ashok Koirala: 55

33. Govinda Raj Joshi: 55