Major parties have finalised most of their candidates for the National Assembly elections scheduled for February 7 as the Election Commission receives nominations on Wednesday.

The EC has arranged for candidate nominations at the offices of election officers in seven district headquarters. Candidates can file nominations from 10am to 4pm on Wednesday in Morang, Dhanusha, Lalitpur, Kaski, Dang, Surkhet and Doti, the poll authority said in a statement.

There are a total of 2,056 voters, comprising 1,506 chiefs and deputy chiefs of local governments and 550 provincial assembly members.

The CPN (Maoist Centre) prepared the final list of its candidates on Tuesday. The names include senior leaders Ram Bahadur Thapa and Dinanath Sharma. Their election can be a step towards holding portfolios in the government. Thapa is said to be a candidate for the NA chairman if elected.

The left alliance has decided to fight for 43 of the 56 seats up for grabs in the Upper House. As agreed, 29 candidates will be from the CPN-UML and 14 from the Maoist Centre.

The UML picked its candidates for provinces 5, 6 and 7 on Monday night while the party finalised the names for the remaining provinces on Tuesday.

Madhes-based parties Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum Nepal and the Rastriya Janata Party Nepal are holding separate meetings to select their candidates. After two rounds of dialogue on alliance with the UML were unproductive, the two parties had reached Baluwatar for negotiations with Nepali Congress leaders. The two parties had demanded two more seats in Province 2 besides the four they could easily win without others’ support but the UML leaders wanted one of the two seats. As the UML did not commit to amending the constitution as demanded by the Madhes allies, the talks broke down.

According to Madhesi leader Brikhesh Chandra Lal, the two parties later decided to side with the NC with two seats each for the three parties in Province 2.

The UML has decided to field singer Komal Oli as a candidate. Oli had joined the party recently after defecting from the Kamal Thapa-led Rastriya Prajatantra Party. During the recently concluded elections, the UML had denied her candidacy for a provincial assembly member.

The NC has selected only four candidates each for provinces 4, 5, 6 and 7 as the party is in a minority in all the provinces against the left alliance. In Province 2 Assembly, the alliance of the SSF-N and RJP-N has a majority. Leaders say they will come up with the final list on Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile the Rastriya Janamorcha has decided to field three candidates in the National Assembly elections —Krishna Adhikary and Mina Pun from Province 4 and Rasmi Raj Nepali from Province 5.