Singh, Yadav emerge victorious for gen secy, treasurer posts

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KATHMANDU: Prakash Man Singh and Chitralekha Yadav have been elected as general secretary and treasurer of the Nepali Congress party respectively in the ongoing 12th general convention in Kathmandu on Wednesday. Among the three candidates, Prakash Man Singh got 1656 votes beating nearest rival Bimalendra Nidhi by a margin of 430 votes, who got only 1226 votes. Narahari Acharya stood third with 152 votes.

Similarly Chitralekha Yadav beat Padma Narayan Chaudhary with a margin of 139 votes. She got 1559 votes while her rival Chaudhary got only 1420 votes. However, the party’s election committee is yet to announce the formal results. The vote count had started at 3.30 pm.

Prakash Man Singh and Bimalendra Nidhi were the running mates of Sushil Koirala and Sher Bahadur Deuba respectively. Sushil Koirala was already elected as NC president beating Sher Bahadur Deuba. Bhim Bahadur Tamang stood third.

Prakash is the son of the late Ganesh Man Singh, co-founder of NC. Ganesh Man is known as the Iron Man of Nepali politics. He had a decisive role during the democratic movements of 1950 and 1990.

Prakash was elected as the central committee member in the 10th NC national general convention. Later he was promoted to vice president from general secretary of Nepali Congress Democratic led by Sher Bahadur Deuba after it split to form NC-Democratic on September 22, 2002. After the unification of the NC and NC-D, he was made vice president of the unified party. Singh left his leader Deuba when there was a dispute about representing the party in the government led by Madhav Kumar Nepal after the downfall of UCPN-Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal. He joined the Sushil Koirala camp and played a vital role to elevate Ram Chandra Paudel to Parliamentary Party leader in 2009.

Yadav was a former vice speaker of the House of Representative in 1999. She became famous for conducting a House meet on the road during the royal takeover on February 4, 2004. She rejected the post of the Minister of Water Resources in the cabinet of late Girija Prasad Koirala after the success of the April uprising in 2006.

Yadav was an elected member of the NC Democratic led by former PM Deuba and remains the sitting central working committee member in the NC after unification.

(With inputs from our correspondent Santosh Pokharel)

LATEST COUNT

General Secretary

Praskash Man Singh: 1656; Bimalendra Nidhi: 1226

Narahari Acharya: 152

Treasurer

Chitralekha Yadav: 1559; Padam Narayan Chaudhary: 1420