CPN (Maoist Centre) lawmaker Narayan Dahal and Yuvaraj Sharma of the Nepali Congress will face off for the National Assembly chair’s position.

Urmila Aryal, vice-chairperson of the upper house, on Sunday announced that the elections will be held on Tuesday. Though the main opposition Congress had proposed to postpone the election date by a few days, the Business Advisory Committee rejected the proposal saying the vote cannot be deferred.

The position is vacant with Ganesh Timilsina retiring after completing his six-year tenure on March 3.

As per the election schedule, parties wanting to contest the post should file their nominations between 11 am and 1 pm on Monday and the vote is slated for 11:09 am on Tuesday.

The office bearers’ meeting of the Maoist Centre picked Dahal, who also is a younger brother to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, as a candidate for the position. Though some party leaders wanted either Aryal or Jhakku Prasad Subedi to be named for the position, the party agreed on Dahal's name.

“We also discussed Aryal and Subedi but settled on Dahal’s name,” said Chakra Pani Khanal, the party secretary. A leader present in the meeting said there was a strong voice to field someone who can serve for the full six-year term, but everyone agreed on what the party supremo wanted.

Dahal, the party chair, has often favoured his relatives in politics, often leading to controversies. Just last month, Janardan Sharma, a party deputy general secretary, had registered a written objection to the appointment of Narayan Dahal and Bina Magar as deputy in-charges of the party’s Bagmati and Sudurpaschim provincial committees, respectively. Magar is a daughter-in-law to Dahal, the prime minister.

Dahal was nominated to the National Assembly in 2022 by the then President Bidya Devi Bhandari on the recommendation of then Sher Bahadur Deuba government. He, however, has a long political history.

Dahal, who started his politics in the 1980s, became a Maoist central committee member in 1997. He first entered Parliament in the reinstated House of Representatives after the 2006 People’s Movement. In the 2008 first Constituent Assembly, he was elected from Chitwan-3.

On the other hand, the Congress parliamentary party unanimously nominated Sharma for the position. Former Banke district chairperson of the party, he was elected lawmaker in 2022.

As Dahal will be the common candidate of the five-party ruling alliance he is almost certain to win the election. He, however, can lead the House only for four years as he has already completed two years of his six-year term.

The ruling alliance holds a comfortable majority with 38 members in the 59-strong upper house, where one position remains vacant. Though the lawmakers in 19 out of 20 seats vacated on March 3 have already been elected, the vacant seat after Bimala Rai Paudyal retired remains empty.

The President will nominate someone for the seat on the government's recommendation.

With 17 seats, the Maoist Centre is the largest party while the UML has 10 seats. The CPN (Unified Socialist) and Janata Samajbadi Party have eight and three seats, respectively.

The Congress with 16 members is the second largest party. Its candidate Sharma might get the support of Loktantrik Samajbadi Party, which has one seat in the House.

Though there is no constitutional barrier for having both chair and vice-chair of the assembly from the same party, the Maoist Centre has made a written commitment to cede the vice-chair’s position to the UML. Therefore, Aryal must quit as vice-chair to clear the path for the UML's candidate.

Article 92 (2) of the Constitution of Nepal says one of the two positions must go to a woman with no bar for a single party to hold both the positions.

Aryal was elected unopposed as vice-chair on February 6 last year. Her candidacy was supported by the UML, among others.

During the nomination for the National Assembly election in January, the Maoist Centre had given its word to the Congress to support its candidate for the post of chairperson. Krishna Prasad Sitaula contested the polls and became victorious. But Dahal didn't abide by his commitment. Knowing that it was now a lost cause, Situala pulled out of the race for the assembly chair.

On Sunday Situala, accompanied by other leaders, expressed his disappointment before Dahal for failing to keep his word. He even warned the prime minister that the betrayal would have consequences.