Pushpa Bhusal (Gautam) has been elected the deputy Speaker.

Nepali Congress’ Bhusal defeated UML’s Bidya Bhattarai.

Bhusal secured 148 votes with support from the coalition partners–CPN (Maoist Centre), CPN (Unified Socialist), Janata Samajbadi Party and Rastriya Janamorcha. Loktantrik Samajbadi Party also voted for Bhusal.

Bhattarai received 93 votes though the UML has 98 lawmakers. According to party’s Chief Whip Bishal Bhattarai, other lawmakers remained absent today.

“I hereby declare that the proposal to elect Pushpa Bhusal as the deputy Speaker has been endorsed through majority votes,” said Speaker Agni Sapkota, announcing the results after the polls.

As many as 242 lawmakers were present in the House during the election.

On Thursday, Maoist Centre’s chief whip Dev Prasad Gurung proposed Bhusal’s nomination while Unified Socialist’s lawmaker Laxmi Kumari Chaudhari seconded the proposal.

Similarly, UML’s whip Shanta Chaudhari proposed Bhattarai’s nomination, as another UML lawmaker Krishna Bhakta Pokhrel supported the proposal.

This is the second time Bhusal contested for the position. She was defeated by Shiva Maya Tumbahangphe in the election for the post in March 2018.

Tumbahangphe, however, had to resign in January 2020 to pave the way for the election of Agni Sapkota as Speaker following the resignation of Krishna Bahadur Mahara after rape allegations.

At that time, Sapkota, a Maoist leader, represented the Nepal Communist Party, which was formed in May 2018 after a merger between the CPN (Maoist Centre) and the CPN-UML.

Article 91 of the constitution that says the Speaker and the deputy Speaker can’t be elected from the same party.

The deputy Speaker post was lying vacant since the resignation of Tumbahangphe.