Political parties preparing for the March 5 parliamentary elections have recommended leaders from constituencies across the country as their potential candidates.

While the parties have already submitted their lists of candidates for the proportional representation (PR) category, they have begun the process to select candidates to be elected under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system.

In several cases, national-level leaders have been recommended from multiple constituencies alongside other party leaders, and some top leaders have been recommended as the sole candidates from certain constituencies.

However, will the same leaders actually get the opportunity to contest from the constituencies from where they have been recommended, or will the party, at the last moment, field other candidates who were not even included in the recommendations?

This question lies at the heart of the candidate selection process in Nepali political parties, where grassroots recommendations often clash with strategic calculations made by central leadership. This tension could reshape key constituencies and influence the outcome of the March elections.

Although several leaders the Post spoke to privately admit that such practices are common, they refuse to acknowledge on the record.

Bhishma Adhikari, office secretary at the CPN-UML head office, says that his party has traditionally followed the practice of finalising the same candidates as recommended from the constituencies concerned. Some constituencies have recommended a single leader each, while others have proposed multiple names in order of priority.

In such cases, central leaders may pick any of the recommended candidates instead of choosing the one ranked on top. However, Adhikari stated that the likelihood of nominating a candidate from outside the list of recommended leaders is low.

“Party headquarters also has the prerogative to field a candidate, at times, to maintain balance in intra-party dynamics,” Adhikari said. According to him, in most cases, recommended leaders are allowed to contest from their constituencies.

In the UML, first the party members from the constituency recommend the names, which are approved and forwarded by district and provincial committees to the central committee for final selection.

“Our party has a history of mostly selecting the same candidates that are suggested by the representatives from the grassroots,” Adhikari said.

However, such claims are contradicted by past practice. In the 2022 parliamentary election, the party did not field Bhim Rawal despite his being unanimously recommended as the sole candidate from Achham-1.

Rawal, who had challenged party chair KP Sharma Oli during the UML’s 10th general convention held in 2021, was ultimately denied a ticket, a party leader recalled the incident.

A similar fate befell another senior leader, Ghanashyam Bhusal. Although he was recommended from Rupandehi-3, the UML denied him the ticket. Later, Bhusal contested the election as an independent, with the backing from the Congress-Maoist Centre coalition.

“Even though the party claims that recommended candidates are given opportunities, there are numerous instances where individuals who were not recommended at all have been nominated instead,” said a UML leader on condition of anonymity.

Political analyst Dambar Khatiwada says the recommendation process itself is largely a formality and not a binding one. “In practice, candidates rarely get tickets without the backing of the party’s top leadership,” Khatiwada told the Post.

UML chair KP Sharma Oli has been recommended as the sole candidate from Jhapa–5, the constituency he has been contesting from. Meanwhile, party’s senior leader Ishwar Pokhrel has been unanimously recommended from Kathmandu–5.

Pokhrel has also been proposed as the top-ranked candidate from Dhanusha-3, alongside other aspirants, and likewise as the first-choice candidate from Okhaldhunga. In 2022, Pradip Paudel of Nepali Congress defeated him in Kathmandu-5.

Notably, while the CPN-UML has recommended six candidates from Chitwan-1, it has not recommended former finance minister Surendra Pandey, who had previously contested elections from the same constituency multiple times.

Pandey, who had contested for the post of general secretary at the party’s 11th general convention from Ishwar Pokhrel camp held last month and was defeated by Shankar Pokhrel of Oli faction, had earlier won elections from Chitwan-1 in the second Constituent Assembly election and the 2017 general election. However, he was defeated in the 2022 election.

Likewise, UML Vice-chair Bishnu Prasad Paudel has been unanimously recommended from Rupandehi–2, but he has also been proposed as the first-choice candidate from Rupandehi–3 and Palpa–2.

Vice-chair Gokarna Bista has been recommended by Gulmi–2 along with other party leaders. Similarly, General Secretary Shankar Pokhrel has been recommended as the sole candidate from his home constituency Dang-2, where he narrowly lost in the 2022 election against the alliance of Congress and Maoist Centre along with other fringe parties. Additionally, central committee member Pradeep Gyawali has been recommended as the sole candidate from Gulmi-1.

Nepali Congress’ local committees have started recommending their candidates too. The party’s Dadeldhura chapter has unanimously recommended party president Sher Bahadur Deuba as its sole candidate.

Deuba has been winning elections continuously from Dadeldhura, his home district, since 1991 and has already served as prime minister five times.

Similarly, Congress acting president Purna Bahadur Khadka has been recommended from Surkhet–1, while another vice-president, Dhanaraj Gurung, has been recommended as a candidate from Syangja constituencies 1 and 2.

Senior Congress leader Shekhar Koirala has been recommended from Morang–6, Bimalendra Nidhi from Dhanusha–3, and party’s former vice-president Prakash Man Singh from Kathmandu–1. Among the party’s two general secretaries, Bishwa Prakash Sharma has announced not to contest the upcoming election, whereas the other general secretary, Gagan Thapa, has been recommended as a candidate from six different constituencies.

Thapa, who has won the direct election from Kathmandu–4 three times in a row, has already made it clear that he will contest the upcoming election from the same constituency. He recently stated this while addressing an event in Kathmandu–4.

These recommendations follow a decision taken by the Nepali Congress Central Working Committee on December 1 directing subordinate committees to submit names of potential candidates for both first-past-the-post and proportional representation seats in the House of Representatives by mid-December.

Congress leaders say there are several instances where the party has fielded candidates who were not recommended by lower committees. They cited the upcoming National Assembly election on January 25 as one such example. For this election, Congress has nominated three candidates who were not recommended by the chapters concerned.

Under a seat-sharing agreement with the CPN-UML, nine candidates were allocated to the Congress. Of them, three were directly picked by the central leadership without recommendation from the grassroots. According to Congress leaders, Geeta Devkota, Dharmendra Paswan, and Jagat Timilsina are the upper house candidates that were not recommended by lower committees.

“There are numerous such irregularities within the Congress,” a leader said.

Perhaps the leader recommended as a candidate from the largest number of constituencies is Pushpa Kamal Dahal, coordinator of the Nepali Communist Party (NCP). Elected from Gorkha–2 in 2022, he has this time been recommended as a candidate from 10 different constituencies.

Dahal has been contesting elections since the first Constituent Assembly election in 2008. He has changed his constituency in every subsequent election. He was elected to the House of Representatives from Gorkha-2 in 2022, from Chitwan-3 in 2017; and to the second Constituent Assembly in 2013 from Siraha-5; and first Constituent Assembly in 2008 from Rolpa and Kathmandu-10.

NCP co-coordinator Madhav Kumar Nepal has been solely recommended from Rautahat-1 and also recommended from Kathmandu-2 as well.

Former Speaker and NCP spokesperson Agni Prasad Sapkota said that final decisions on candidates have yet to be made. “Senior leaders, including the party chief, have been recommended from multiple constituencies. However, there is still time to finalise which constituencies they will eventually contest from,” Sapkota told the Post.

Meanwhile, the Rastriya Swatantra Party has invited applications from the aspirants to contest under the FPTP category, until Saturday. According to party leaders, the applicants’ backgrounds will be reviewed, and candidates will be selected in consultation with Kathmandu Mayor Balendra Shah and Kulman Ghising of the Ujyalo Nepal Party (UNP). Shah’s group and UNP joined the RSP through mergers recently.

RSP leader Ganesh Parajuli said some individuals have already been recommended from certain constituencies but the party leadership does not necessarily finalise the recommended names only.

While selecting candidates for the PR category, the RSP conducted primaries. When some aspirants secured top votes in the intra-party competition, people understood that they would be placed on the top of the list but it was not the case when the party submitted the PR lists to the Election Commission on December 29. Later, the RSP leaders clarified that the result of the primary carried the 50 percent weightage and other evaluations made by the party leadership was given 50 percent weightage.

“The party can still go for a primary to select FPTP candidates as well if deemed necessary,” Parajuli said.