NC General Convention : Singh to support Deuba for party president

Senior leader of Nepali Congress Prakash Man Singh has promised to lend support to Prime Minister Deuba in the second phase of election to chose the party president.

During Monday’s voting for Nepali Congress president held at Bhrikutimandap, Kathmandu no one including Deuba could not garner more than 50 per cent votes to be elected as the party president.

As per the party’s statute it needs 50 per cent plus one vote to be elected as the party president. As the election results were out Tuesday morning, Deuba got first position with 2,258 votes followed by Shekhar Koirala, who secured 1,702 votes. PM Singh secured third position with 371 votes followed Bimalendra Nidhi, who secured 250 votes. Kalyan Gurung, stood in fifth position with just 22 votes.

As nobody could get required 2,340 votes to win the president’s position the party’s election committee announced second phase of elections for the post of president. There were 4,743 eligible voters in total out of which only 4,679 valid votes were cast.

Now the ball rests in the court of Singh, who is learnt to have extended support to Deuba in the second phase of election. Deuba, who is short of just 82 votes to win the president, will be declared victorious with the backing of Singh. There is a popular saying that in politics, nobody is permanent friend of foe. Who is enemy and who is friend all depends upon circumstances. In the first round of voting, most of the senior leaders belonging to Ramchandra Poudyal including Poudyal himself backed Koirala, which helped him to secure second position in the election.

Singh was a rebellion candidate, who managed to get 371 votes on his own. Now Deuba and Singh is learnt to have a power sharing deal for future politics.