Nepali Congress leader Umesh Shrestha on Sunday filed an application at the Election Commission demanding that the commission declare him elected as a member of the House of Representatives from Chitwan-2.

Shrestha claimed that he should be declared victorious from the constituency automatically as the Supreme Court invalidated Rastriya Swatantra Party President Rabi Lamichhane’s status as a lawmaker.

Shrestha stood second receiving 14,983 votes in the polls held in November last year. Lamichhane won the election garnering 49,264 votes.

Speaking to journalists after the leader Shrestha submitted the application, Surya Prasad Aryal, assistant spokesperson of the Election Commission, said that the vacant position should be fulfilled only through a by-election as per the existing election laws.

“The laws have not envisioned any other means than a by-election to fulfil the vacant position of a lawmaker,” said Aryal.

The Supreme Court on January 27 had stripped RSP chief Rabi Lamichhane of his lawmaker position, saying that the citizenship certificate he produced to contest the parliamentary election was invalid.

The cancellation of his citizenship certificate also cost him the positions of the home minister and party president. But, on January 29, Lamichhane reacquired citizenship from the District Administration Office, Kathmandu and his party subsequently reinstated him as party president.