Out of six provinces where the elections to the parliamentary party (PP) leaders were held, the establishment has emerged unbeaten with the election of five PP leaders. The non-establishment faction fielded its candidates only in two provinces.
Uddhav Thapa of Krishna Prasad Sitaula group was elected by securing 18 votes as the PP leader in Province 1 after party President Sher Bahadur Deuba extended support to him. Amrit Aryal who is close to Deuba obtained only two votes. Kedar Karki, who is considered close to Shekhar Koirala, has obtained only nine votes.
The non-establishment faction could not filed its candidate in Madhesh Province. Two candidates -- one from Deuba panel and the other from Bimalendra Nidi group – were in the fray for the election of the PP leader.
Krishna Prasad Yadav from Deuba panel, who is also the NC President of the province, was elected as PP leader by defeating Ramsaroj Yadav of Nidhi group. Krishna Prasad obtained 18 out of 22 votes while Ramsaroj got only four votes.
In Bagmati Province, Bahadur Singh Lama was elected PP leader by securing 21 votes while his closest rival Indra Baniya got 16 votes. Both of them are from the Deuba panel. Lama won the election after Deuba extended support to him. The non-establishment faction could not field its candidate.
In Gandaki Pradesh, Sundra Pandey from the Deuba panel was elected by securing 18 votes out of 27 votes. Bhojraj Aryal from the Gagan-Koirala faction got eight votes. One vote was declared invalid.
As per arithmetic calculations, there were 14 lawmakers from Deuba panel and 13 from Shekhar-Gagan panel.
Dilli Chaudhary has been elected as the PP leader of Nepali Congress from establishment. The Shekhar-Gagan panel was preparing to back Abdul Razzak but they failed in their bid to challenge the establishment after Rajjak dropped out of the electoral race to the PP leader.
Out of 27 NC lawmakers, a majority of them are from the Deuba panel.
Chaudhary was elected as a lawmaker from Dang-3 (1). He is also the incumbent Minister for Tourism, Rural and Urban Development.
Jeevan Bahadur Shahi was elected as the PP leader of Nepali Congress in Karnali Province. Both Shah and Shahi are from the establishment and are Central Working Committee members of the NC. Shahi is making preparations to be reappointed as the Chief Minister of Karnali Province.
NC has increased the number of province lawmakers from six to 14 this time in the province.
In Sudurpashchim Province, out of 19 NC lawmakers, only two have opened up to the non-establishment faction.
Bahadur Singh Thapa from Kanchanpur-2 (2) and Prakash Deuba from Kailali-5 (2) are in the fray for the PP leader race.
Prakash is close to Arzu Rana, the wife of Prime Minister Deuba. Leader NP Saud is lobbying to make Bahadur Singh as the PP leader.
Similarly, Dewan Singh Bista who was elected as lawmaker from Kanchanpur-1 (2) is also a candidate for the post of PP leader. He is from the non-establishment faction.
The election date for the PP leader is yet to be unveiled.
