The coalition partners of the ruling alliance have decided to field three leaders as candidates for the post of Vice President.

The parties at a meeting of the alliance held at the prime minister’s residence on Saturday decided to register the candidacies of the three candidates as they could not agree on a common candidate.

One candidate from the Janamat Party, and two from the Janata Samajbadi Party will be contesting for the post of the Vice President.

“It has been decided that Mamata Jha of the Janamat Party, and Ram Sahay Prasad Yadav and Pramila Yadav of the Janata Samajbadi Party will file their nominations for the upcoming vice-presidential election,” Janamat Party vice-chair and Minister for Water Supply Abdul Khan said.

Since the Election Commission has stated that the candidate for the post of Vice President must be a female, and the constitution also states the same, Janamat Party decided to field Jha as the candidate, said party chair Chandrakant Raut.

However, CPN (Maoist Centre) General Secretary Dev Gurung stated that the decision would be further discussed to agree on a common candidate.

Earlier, the ruling alliance had decided to give the post of Vice President to the Janata Samajbadi Party. Problems emerged after the Janamat Party did not back out from laying their claim on the post.

The Janata Samajbadi Party had decided to field its lawmaker and parliamentary party leader Ram Sahay Prasad Yadav as its candidate for Vice President on Thursday. After the election commission stated that the candidate for the nation’s second-highest post must be a female, the party decided to field Pramila Yadav along with Ram Sahay Prasad Yadav.

Janata Samajbadi lawmaker Pradip Yadav believes that an agreement will be reached by Sunday. Since the ruling alliance had decided to give the vice-presidential post to the Janata Samajbadi Party, a single candidate of the said party will be fielded as a candidate, Pradip Yadav added.

Meanwhile, the CPN-UML has decided to field party vice-president Astalaxmi Shakya as its candidate for the post.

UML Deputy General Secretary Pradeep Kumar Gyawali informed that a meeting of the party’s central committee members held early on Saturday took the decision to make Shakya the vice-presidential candidate.

“A meeting of the party’s central committee members held this morning has decided to field party vice president Shakya as the candidate for the post of vice-president,” Gyawali said. “The meeting took the decision unanimously.”

Shakya is a former chief minister of the Bagmati Province. She is also the first female chief minister of Nepal.

The Election Commission has scheduled the vice-presidential election for March 17. The parties must nominate their candidates on March 11.