Now Singh and Nidhi are decisive

KATHMANDU: DEC. 14 – As the president could not be decided in the first round of voting in the ongoing general convention of the Nepali Congress, the race has started among the leaders as soon as the second round of voting will be held. Now, in the second phase, the tug-of-war over who will support whom has started.

In the second phase of the election, Sher Bahadur Deuba and Shekhar Koirala will compete for the presidency. They both have to work with Prakash Man Singh and Bimalendra Nidhi, who are in third and fourth place, to win the election. Koirala and Singh were already in the Deuba group while Nidhi had parted ways with Deuba only a few months ago.

In the first round, Deuba got 2258 votes while Koirala got 1729 votes. There is a difference of 529 votes between Deuba and Koirala. Singh got 371 votes, Nidhi got 249 votes and Kalyan Gurung got 20 votes. Adding the votes of Singh, Nidhi and Gurung gives 640 votes. Deuba needs 82 votes and Koirala needs about 600 votes to win.

Now Shekhar Koirala wants to take Singh with him but it is impossible to win the election with his support alone. Koirala’s chances seem to be strong if he gets Nidhi’s support. When one of these two supports Deuba and the other supports Koirala, Deuba will win the presidency.

After the second round of voting, Deuba’s close leader and Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand has reached the residence in Chaksibari to meet leader Prakash Man Singh in the morning. Khand has offered to help Deuba with Singh, but Singh has said that he will decide who to help only after discussing with his group.

Sher Bahadur Deuba, Ram Chandra Poudel and Krishna Prasad Sitaula were the presidential candidates in the 13th General Convention. The results of the two-phase election were in Deuba’s favor.