Following deliberations over three days amid a tug of war between two rival factions, Nepali Congress on Thursday finally picked its candidates for the upcoming bypolls—Dambar Khadka for the Ilam-2 House of Representatives seat and Abhishek Singh for the Bajhang (A) provincial assembly seat.

The by-elections in both the constituencies are scheduled for April 27.

On Thursday, party president Sher Bahadur Deuba came out of the main opposition’s parliamentary board meeting, which decided on the candidates, a victor, getting the contenders of his choice to fight the by-elections.

The party’s work execution committee later endorsed the decision, said Min Bishwakarma, head of the party’s publicity division. “Since Dambarji had lost the 2022 elections by a thin margin, the meeting decided to give him the ticket this time as well,” he said.

The party will seek support for its candidates from other parties too, Bishwakarma added.

Ahead of the decision, the parliamentary board listened to all seven aspirants of the party whose names were recommended by the party’s provincial committee.

During the discussion, all seven aspirants committed that they will support anyone who gets the ticket from the party.

Party president Deuba was in favour of both Khadka and Singh since the beginning of the discussions and faced strong opposition from general secretaries, Gagan Thapa and Bishwa Prakash Sharma, and other key leaders Shekhar Koirala and Shashank Koirala, among others, who were in favour of Bhesh Raj Acharya in Ilam-2. Deuba refused to budge from his position until the end, party leaders said, getting his preferred candidate, Khadka, to contest the election.

Khadka had also contested the 2022 parliamentary election and lost it by a razor-thin margin of 114 votes to CPN-UML leader Subas Nembang. While Nembang garnered 30,020 votes, Khadka, who was a common candidate of the Congress-led alliance, managed to get 29,906. While the establishment faction of the party argued that Khadka should be given another chance, the opposition faction opted for a fresh candidate instead of a ‘tested and failed’ candidate. Khadka is the party’s Ilam district president.

The Ilam-2 House of Representatives seat has remained vacant since the demise of former Speaker and Constituent Assembly chairman Nembang in September last year. The UML leader had continuously won the constituency since the 1999 general elections.

The Bajhang seat remains vacant after Prithvi Bahadur Singh, an assembly member and provincial minister for internal affairs and law, died in a road accident in June last year. The new candidate, Abhisekh, is the son of the late Prithvi Bahadur.

Meanwhile, the CPN (Maoist Centre) has decided not to field its candidate for the federal parliament seat. The party has announced to back CPN-UML’s candidate Suhang Nembang in the April 27 bypoll.

The UML and the Maoist Centre are two major partners of the ruling coalition formed on March 4.

Haribol Gajurel, the Maoist party in-charge for Koshi Province, issued a circular on Thursday directing leaders and cadres not to file a candidacy for the Ilam-2 seat, following instructions from the party’s top leadership.

“A circular has been issued directing us to support the UML candidate,” Dhirendra Sharma, who was recommended as a candidate from the party’s local chapter, told the Post. “We will not file a nomination for the seat.”

The fourth largest party in Parliament, Rastriya Swatantra Party, has already fielded Milan Limbu as its candidate in Ilam-2.