KATHMANDU, March 16: Shivamaya Tumbahamphe of the CPN-UML and Pushpa Bhusal of Nepali Congress (NC) are contesting for deputy speaker of the House of Representatives in the election scheduled for Friday.
Ruling party candidate Tumbahamphe is almost certain to be elected to the post, given the left alliance's strong majority in the House. Though main opposition NC had supported ruling Maoist Center's candidate for speaker last week, the party filed Bhusal against Tumbamphe for deputy speaker on Thursday.
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As the constitution requires that the speaker and deputy speaker must be of different gender, both candidate for the deputy speaker are women after men candidate Krishna Bahadur Mahara of Maoist was elected to speaker on last week.
UML fielded Tumbahamphe for deputy speaker as per a power-sharing deal with the Maoist Center, which was alloted the post of speaker.
Both Tumbahamphe and Bhusal were elected lawmakers under the proportional representation category. Tumbahamphe holds a Ph.D. in political movement of women in Nepal from Tribhuvan University. Tumbahamphe is from Morang district, Bhusal is from Arghakhanchi.
Tumbahamphe's candidacy was proposed by Maoist Center's Dev Gurung and seconded by UML's Rabindra Adhikari. Likewise, Bhusal's candidacy was proposed by NC's Dila Sangroula and seconded by the same party's Devendra Kandel. Parliament secretariat has slated deputy speaker's election in the House meeting at 1 pm on Friday.
