KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 10

The CPN-UML lost one seat in the National Assembly after issuing tickets to two leaders of its party for the same seat. One of them, Khim Lal Bhattarai, had to quit his National Assembly seat to contest parliamentary elections from Rupandehi Constitutency-5.

However, the Election Commission invalidated his candidacy because another UML leader, Basudev Ghimire, filed his papers before Bhattarai. Both were issued tickets for the same seat by party Chairman KP Sharma Oli.

Chief Election Officer of Rupandehi Ayodhya Prasad Bhandari told THT over the phone from the district that the UML had issued tickets to both Ghimire and Bhattarai, but because Ghimire filed his candidacy first, Election Office, Rupandehi, decided to deem Ghimire's candidacy valid.

Bhandari said relevant laws stipulated that in case two candidates representing the same party filed candidacy from the same constituency, nomination papers of the candidate who filed the candidacy first would be deemed valid.

According to Bhandari, Ghimire filed his nomination papers at around 3.30pm yesterday, whereas Bhattarai filed his candidacy at around 4.45pm.

Bhattarai told THT that he had filed his nomination papers after Oli, who was responsible for choosing candidates, directed him to do so.

Oli had already issued the ticket to Basudev Ghimire, but changed his mind later and issued the ticket to Bhattarai.

UML headquarters Secretary Sher Bahadur Tamang said, "Bhattarai had two more years as an NA member.

I don't know how he got HoR ticket for elections."

A version of this article appears in the print on October 11, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.