Candidates are filing their nominations in Chitwan, Tanahun and Bara districts on Monday for the April 23 by-elections.

According to the Election Commission, the nomination filing started at 10am and will continue till 5pm. 

Rastriya Swatantra Party President Rabi Lamichhane filed his candidacy from Chitwan-2. His candidacy was proposed by Sita Gyawali and seconded by Bikram Shrestha.

Lamichhane was elected from the constituency in the last year’s polls.

The by-poll is being held in the constituency for a vacant seat after the Supreme Court invalidated Lamichhane’s status as a lawmaker, citing that the citizenship certificate he produced at the time of filing his candidacy for the election was invalid. He later reacquired citizenship.

Lamichhane will be challenged by Nepali Congress’ Jeet Narayan Shrestha and CPN-UML’s Ram Prasad Neupane.

According to Chitwan District Election Office Chief Bhimsen Karki, the constituency has 124,695 voters. A total of 43 voting centres and 138 polling booths have been fixed.

Apart from the constituency, by-polls are being held in Tanahun-1 and Bara-2.

The seats in Tanahun and Bara became vacant after Ramchandra Paudel and Ramsahay Prasad Yadav got elected President and Vice President respectively.