KATHMANDU, August 29: The five ruling parties could not reach an agreement on the number of seats in the Task Force formed for the distribution of seats for the electoral alliance in the provincial assembly and House of Representatives elections. 

The five-party ruling alliance, which said earlier that they will decide on the seat distribution in the third week of August and start selecting their candidates, have failed to prepare a proposal on the number of seats that are being allocated to each party as of Sunday evening.

After the possibility of reaching an agreement on the number of seats became low, the meeting of the Task Force held on Sunday reached an agreement to ask the top leaders to decide the number of seats for the House of Representatives election.

Ramshahyay Yadav, a member of the Task Force and leader of the Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP), said that after reaching agreement on the number of seats in the House of Representatives, it will be easy to reach agreement on the number of seats in the Provincial Assembly. "We will inform the top leaders about the issues that have been raised so far at the Task Force level,” he said. "If the number of seats in the House of Representatives is decided first, it will be easy to agree on the number for the provincial assembly. We will request the same from the top leaders.”

He stated that although the parties of the alliance have submitted their claims to the House of Representatives, the matter of numbers for provincial assembly has not been discussed. He said that the members of the Task Force agreed that the issue of the number of seats should not be protracted further as the election date is approaching fast. "After sitting in a meeting with the top leaders, we will meet again," he said.

Earlier in the Task Force meeting held on Thursday, Nepali Congress claimed 100 seats, CPN (Maoist Center) 60, CPN (Unified Socialist) 40, JSP 32 and Rastriya Janamorcha claimed two seats.

A task force of 11 members led by former Nepali Congress General Secretary Krishna Prasad Sitaula reached an agreement to decide the seats based on the results of the 2074 House of Representatives and local level elections held on May 13. But while the parties maintained their stand on the number, the top leaders asked the Task Force to do its homework on the number of seats in the provinces.

 
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