KATHMANDU: The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) leader Prakash Chandra Lohani said he would contest against Kamal Thapa for the position of the RRP Chairman.

Issuing a statement today, Lohani said an agreement recently made among himself, Thapa, Pashupati Shamsher Rana and Lokendra Bahadur Chand to elect Thapa unanimously in the position was rendered invalid as the statute draft being presented in the convention would not include provisions of the agreement.

He expressed that concerns regarding the election symbol of the party and election of the party office bearers were ignored in the party's revised statute.

Lohani claimed that the leaders had agreed to propose a plough as the party's election symbol as the icon had an emotional intimacy with the party cadres and voters, but the statute did not consider it.

Likewise, the leader said he was for electing at least half of the office bearers through elections in the general convention.

It is noteworthy that the statute draft has proposed to appoint all the office bearers except the chair in the central committee.

"I have expected cooperation from all the cadres," he said, informing of his decision to position himself in the leadership race.

Meanwhile, organising a press statement today itself, Lohani expressed his confidence that he would win the election.

Earlier yesterday, it was reported that Prakash Chandra Lohani had withdrawn from the competition, agreeing to give Thapa the chairmanship.

The RPP is beginning its first general convention in Kathmandu today after a merger between the erstwhile RPP and RPP-Nepal.