Eleven candidacies filed for presidency of 10 parliamentary thematic committees

Nominations have been registered for the elections of presidents of 10 thematic committees under the House of Representatives (HoR).

According to the Federal Parliament Secretariat, various political parties including the Nepali Congress, CPN (UML), CPN (Maoist Centre), Rastriya Swatantra Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Janata Samajbadi Party, CPN (Unified Socialist), and the Janamat Party have submitted their nominations for the upcoming election.

Sole candidacies have been registered in nine committees while two candidacies have been recorded for the Industry and Commerce and the Labour and Consumer Interest Committee.

Finance Committee receives the candidacy of Santosh Chalise of Nepali Congress while Raj Kishore Yadav of the Janata Samajbadi has filed his candidacy for the President of International Relations and Tourism Committee.

Similarly, Abdul Khan of Janamat and RSP's Ganesh Parajuli have submitted their candidacies for the Industry and Commerce, and Labour and Consumer Interest Committee respectively.

Bimala Subedi of Maoist Centre has filed the nomination for Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee while Arju Rana Deuba filed nomination for Agriculture, Cooperatives and Natural Resources Committee and Kiran Kumar Shah for Women and Social Welfare Affairs Committee, and Ramhari Khatiwada's has registered candidacy for the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee.

Likewise, Deepak Bahadur Singh of Rastriya Prajatantra Party has registered candidacy for Infrastructure Development and Bhanubhakta Joshi, representing the Unified Socialist, is contending for the presidency of Education, Health and Information Technology Committee.

 Rhishikesh Pokhrel, affiliated with the UML party, has submitted his candidacy for the Public Account Committee.

The election procedures of the thematic committees functioning under the House of Representatives have been initiated after nine months of the completion of HoR election. The delay in electing the leadership for such thematic committees which are considered as the 'mini parliament' had its impact on the delivery of the committees.

The Secretariat has given a schedule (from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm today to register the nominations within from members on the committees for the elections, according to Secretary Padma Prasad Pandey. In absence of the elections of the presidents of committees, their senior-most members (by age) are chairing the committees' meetings.

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