11 file nominations for elections to leadership of 10 House panels

KATHMANDU: Eleven candidates from various political parties filed their nominations for the elections to the presidents of 10 thematic committees under the House of Representatives (HoR).

According to the Federal Parliament Secretariat, candidates of various political parties including the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, CPN (Maoist Center), Rastriya Swatantra Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Janata Samajbadi Party, CPN (Unified Socialist), and the Janamat Party have filed their candidacies for the upcoming elections.

The Finance Committee receives the candidacy of Santosh Chalise of Nepali Congress while Raj Kishore Yadav of the Janata Samajbadi has filed his candidacy for the President of International Relations and Tourism Committee.

Similarly, Abdul Khan of Janamat and RSP’s Ganesh Parajuli have filed their nominations for the Industry and Commerce, and Labour and Consumer Interest Committee respectively.

Bimala Subedi of Maoist Center has filed his nomination for Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee while Arju Rana Deuba filed her nomination for Agriculture, Cooperatives and Natural Resources Committee and Kiran Kumar Shah for Women and Social Welfare Affairs Committee, and Ramhari Khatiwada filed candidacy for the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee.

Likewise, Deepak Bahadur Singh of Rastriya Prajatantra Party has registered his candidacy for Infrastructure Development and Bhanubhakta Joshi, representing the Unified Socialist, is contesting for the presidency of the Education, Health and Information Technology Committee.

Rhishikesh Pokhrel of the UML filed his candidacy for the Public Account Committee.

The election procedures of the thematic committees under the House of Representatives have been initiated after nine months of the completion of HoR election.

The delay in electing the leadership for such thematic committees which are considered as the ‘mini parliament’ had its impact on the delivery of the committees.

One can file nomination for the elections from 11 am to 4 pm today, according to Secretary Padma Prasad Pandey.

In absence of the elections of the presidents of committees, their senior-most members (by age) are chairing the committees’ meetings.