Nepali Congress lawmaker Ishwari Neupane filed her candidacy for the post of Speaker of the House of Representatives on Thursday.

Neupane’s candidacy was proposed by Bishwa Prakash Sharma, general secretary of the Nepali Congress.

The proposal was seconded by Nepali Congress lawmaker Ramesh Lekhak and CPN (Unified Socialist) lawmaker Prakash Jwala.

Neupane is backed by the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led CPN (Unified Socialist), Upendra Yadav-led Janata Samajbadi Party, and Mahantha Thakur-led Loktantrik Samajbadi Party.

The Parliament Secretariat had set 4 pm Thursday as the deadline to register candidacy for the post of Speaker.

The parliament will elect the Speaker on Thursday while the Deputy Speaker will be elected at a later date.

Earlier, Dev Raj Ghimire of the CPN-UML had filed his candidacy for the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Ghimire is backed by Maoist Centre, Rastriya Swatantra Party and Rastriya Prajatantra Party, who jointly command a majority in the lower house. A candidate needs to secure majority votes of the 275-member House of Representatives to become the Speaker.