KATHMANDU: Nepali Congress (NC) leader and Presidential candidate Prakash Man Singh has assured his support to party President Sher Bahadur Deuba in the second round of voting.

The party is going for the second round of voting as none of the presidential candidates obtained the required number of votes.

The second round of voting is taking place as none of the five presidential candidates received more than 50 percent of votes in the election held on Monday.

There had been an alliance between Deuba and Sitaula factions in the general convention.

However, Deuba could obtain only 2258 votes out of 4681 cast which is less by 82 votes required to get elected.

A total of 2341 votes are required to get elected as the president of Nepali Congress.

According to the final results, Sher Bahadur Deuba got 2258, Dr. Shekhar Koirala 1729, Prakash Man Singh 371, Bimalendra Nidhi 249 votes and Kalyan Gurung got 20 votes.

Given the vote count results, Prakash Man Singh (371) and Bimalendra Nidhi (249) have appeared decisive in electing the president as the 14th general convention of the NC headed for the second round of voting.

Even though they were earlier in the Deuba camp, they have now distanced themselves from the Deuba camp.

Hence, they are likely to extend their support to Dr. Shekhar Koirala in the second round of voting.