KATHMANDU, JULY 15
The House of Representatives today elected Nepali Congress lawmaker Pushpa Bhusal as the deputy speaker.
As many as 242 lawmakers were present in the HoR today, of which 148 voted for Bhusal, 93 voted against her, and one remained neutral.
As Bhusal, who was supported by the five-party alliance, won majority votes in the HoR, Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota said there was no need to hold voting for Bhusal's rival candidate, Bidya Bhattarai. Bhattarai belongs to the main opposition CPN- UML. Bhusal said democrats and followers of the constitution should rejoice, as her election to the post had implemented a vital constitutional provision.
She said her role demanded neutrality in the House and she would honestly shoulder that responsibility.
Asked what role she would play in the Constitutional Council where she would be an ex-officio member, Bhusal said the council had representation from all three organs of the state - executive, legislature, and judiciary - and she should play her role in accordance with the spirit of the constitution.
The post had been lying vacant since January 2020 when the then deputy speaker, Shiva Maya Tumbahangphe, resigned from the post bowing to party pressure.
Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba pushed for Bhusal's election as he wants to have majority in the Constitutional Council that nominates office bearers to constitutional bodies.
The constitution stipulates that the speaker and deputy speaker should be from different parties and gender.
Bhusal, a resident of the Arghakhanchi district, has been active in politics since a young age.
She practised law and taught in college before she was elected a Constituent Assembly member in 2008. She was appointed whip of the NC in the House of Representatives after the 2017 Parliamentary elections.
Bhusal was the general secretary of the Nepal Women's Association, a sister wing of the NC. Her father Kashinath Gautam was the health minister in BP Koirala-led cabinet formed after the 1959 general election.
Gautam had gone into exile to India after King Mahendra dismissed the Koirala government and usurped power in 1960.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 16, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
