KATHMANDU: The Nepali Congress parliamentary board has finalized candidates for all 165 constituencies, with the final list announced at the last moment by party president Gagan Kumar Thapa. Following the announcement, the faction aligned with former president Sher Bahadur Deuba has expressed dissatisfaction.
A source close to the Deuba camp told Khabarhub on Tuesday that the candidate selection by Thapa’s side has undermined the party’s vote share.
“Candidates were chosen without considering local influence. This raises concerns that the party may struggle to retain the 2.7 million votes it secured in the previous election,” the source said.
The Deuba faction also accused Thapa of disrespecting senior leaders by sidelining them from the electoral process.
“Names of senior figures like former president Sher Bahadur Deuba, Ramesh Lekhak, and Prakash Man Singh were submitted for tickets, but they were ignored, and only those loyal to Thapa were selected,” the source added.
The source explained that the original plan was for candidate selection to be shared among Thapa, Deuba, and Dr. Shekhar Koirala factions, with a distribution of 40% each for Deuba and Thapa, and 20% for Koirala. However, the final selection did not follow this agreement.
“Only candidates considered loyal and winnable were chosen, ignoring the prior agreement, which has raised concerns about potential vote loss,” the source said.
Regarding the second special convention held at Bhadrakuti Mandap, the source claimed that even when Deuba was willing to agree to all eight points proposed by Thapa’s faction, they were not accepted.
“Since the Deuba faction could not exercise independent authority and were denied the opportunity to field candidates in what could have been the last election of his political career, no consensus could be reached,” he added.
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