23 Chait, Kathmandu. Nepali Congress Parliamentary Party meeting is sitting today. It is said that the issue of electing the leader of the parliamentary party will be discussed in the meeting held at Singh Darwar at 11 am.

Nepali Congress MP Basana Thapa said that although she did not say about the agenda of the meeting, there could be a discussion on selecting the leader of the parliamentary party. She said, ‘The agenda of the meeting of the parliamentary party has not been stated. However, the leader of the parliamentary party has to be selected.’

The leaders of the Congress parliamentary party are being discussed from senior members of the House of Representatives, Arjunnar Singh KC, Bhishmaraj Angdembe, Mohan Acharya, Bharat Bahadur Khadka to Niskal Rai.

Since the senior member KC has to conduct the Parliament meeting until the Speaker is elected, the Congress has said that it is going to elect the party leader late. On Sunday, Dolprasad (DP) Aryal has been elected as the Speaker, and now Aryal will conduct the meeting of the House of Representatives.

Other parties have already selected the leader of the parliamentary party. Balendra Shah (Balen), a senior leader of the Rashtriya Swatantra Party (RASWPA), was elected as the leader of the parliamentary party and became the Prime Minister.

CPN-UML has elected Ram Bahadur Thapa, Nepali Communist Party has elected Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, Shram Culture Party Chairman Hark Sampang and Rashtriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) has elected Gyanendra Shahi as party leader.

What is there in the constitution of the Congress regarding the selection of the leader of the parliamentary party?

However, Nepali Congress, the second largest party in the House of Representatives and the main opposition party, has not elected a leader of the parliamentary party.

The leader of the main opposition party is a constitutional post. The leader of the main opposition party is also a member of the Constitutional Council.

Section 5 of the Constitution of the Congress Parliamentary Party provides for the election of the leader of the parliamentary party. According to sub-sections (1) and (2) of the said section, party leaders are elected in the Congress.

In sub-section 1, it is mentioned that ‘members of the House of Representatives who are members of the parliamentary party shall elect the leader of the parliamentary party from among themselves’ and in sub-section 2, ‘if there is more than one candidate, the election shall be held by secret ballot’.

In the parliamentary history of the Congress, after the 2064 election, the leader of the party has not been elected unanimously. Since the internal factionalism has reached its climax after the election of the leadership from the special convention, it seems more likely that the party leader will be elected through voting this time as well.

The Congress adopted the voting process during the election of the leader for the parliament formed after the House of Representatives election 2079. In the election, the current Chairman Gagan Thapa was defeated by the then Chairman Sher Bahadur Deuba.

Congress leaders say that because Thapa and Deuba are on the side of the Congress parliamentary party, there is a high possibility of an election this year to elect the leader of the party.