Dahal elected as Rastriya Sabha Chair

Kathmandu, 12 March: Narayan Prasad Dahal, the candidate of ruling alliance, has been elected as Chairperson of the Rastriya Sabha with 39 votes against 17 of  Yubaraj Sharma, fielded by the Nepali Congress.

Dahal was proposed by Gopi Bahadur Achhami (MC) and seconded by Devendra Dahal of CPN (UML), Beduram Bhusal of CPN (Unified Socialist) and Mohammad Khalid of Janata Samajwadi Party.

Krishna Prasad Sitaula who is now the leader of the Nepali Congress party in the upper House, was the biggest loser in the whole exercise.

The breakup of the Nepali Congress and Maoist alliance last week torpedoed his chance to occupy the chair of the House as the Maoists backtracked and literally snatched the post for itself.

Prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal handpicked his cousin overlooking other contenders from the party.

Sharma’s bid for NA Chair was proposed by Ananda Prasad Dhungana (NC), while NC’s Kiran Babu Shrestha and Kishor Kumar Singh of Loktantrik Samajwadi Party Nepal had seconded his candidacy.

The post of NA Chair was vacant after the tenure of the then Chairman Ganesh Prasad Timilsina ended last week.