Koirala elected NC PP leader

Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala has been elected the party’s Parliamentary Party leader defeating his rival senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba .

Of the total 194 votes, Koirala secured 105 votes while Deuba secured 89 votes. A candidate has to secure 96 votes to be elected as a PP leader. NC has 194 seats in the Constituent Assembly (CA).

Earlier, the voting was disrupted for some time after the electronic voting machine malfunctioned. Voting was interrupted after the electronic voting machine showed only 16 votes when 17 persons had cast their votes.

The party had decided to go for voting after failing to select a unanimous candidate for the PP leader despite a marathon meeting that went late into Saturday night.

The voting was conducted at NC PP office in Singha Durbar on Sunday.

Vice President Ram Chandra Poudel pulled out of the race and decided to support Koirala after Koirala agreed to entrust party related tasks to Poudel if he assumes the post of prime minister of the country.

According to the provision mentioned in NC party statute, only the PP could be legitimate candidate for the prime ministerial berth.