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Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) Nepal Chairman Upendra Yadav and Janata Samajbadi Party Co-Chair Renu Yadav signed a party unification agreement on Monday. 

Earlier on Sunday, an understanding had been reached between the Tarai Madhes Loktantrik Party and Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal to move forward with unification. 

The leaders agreed to unite the parties to protect and promote the federal democratic republic and safeguard the rights of the Madhes region and the Madhesi people.

Majority of central committee members of Janata Samajbadi Party would join the party led by Upendra Yadav, said a leader Pradeep Yadav of JSP Nepal. 

He opined that the unification was announced keeping the wish and expectation of Madhesi people in mind, as unity between the JSP Nepal and Janata Samajbadi Party was indispensable in the changed political context.

The Nepali Communist Party (NCP) has decided not to include the names of the leaders, who already became lawmakers and ministers, in the proportional representation list of the House of Representatives. 

As per the consensus reached among the top leaders of the party, the names of party leaders, who already have served as lawmakers under the first-past-the-post election or proportional representation system as well as member of the National Assembly, would not be included in the proportional list, shared Chief Secretary of the NCP, Ganesh Man Pun. 

As per the election schedule, the political parties participating in the March 5 elections to the House of Representatives have to submit the closed list under the PR system by this afternoon. 

The political parties have to submit the closed list for 110 seats under the PR system.

Two popular leaders have formed an alliance ahead of March parliamentary elections in Nepal that will challenge the older parties which have dominated the Himalayan nation's politics for over three decades, party officials and analysts said on Monday, Reuters reported. 

Rapper turned-Kathmandu mayor Balendra Shah, known as Balen, a popular elected official, joined the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) or national independent party, led by a former TV host-turned politician Rabi Lamichhane on Sunday, party officials said.

They said under the agreement with RSP, 35-year old Balen will become the prime minister if the RSP wins the March 5 elections while Lamichhane, 48, will remain the party chief.

Both have vowed to address the demands raised during the "Gen Z" or youth-led protests against widespread corruption in September in which 77 people were killed and led to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigning, according to Reuters. 

Political parties, including major ones, are preparing to submit their closed lists of candidates for the Proportional Representation (PR) system under the House of Representatives (HoR) election–2082 BS today, which is the second and final day for submission.

According to the schedule released by the Election Commission (EC), the submission of PR lists began on Sunday. 

While several smaller parties submitted their lists on the first day, major parties such as the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML,  Nepali Communist Party (NCP), and Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) are expected to submit their lists today. These parties have scheduled internal meetings before formally approaching the EC.

Political parties must submit supporting documents along with the lists, including confirmation that candidates’ names appear on the voter list, their voter ID numbers, and copies of citizenship certificates.

EC Spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai said that scrutiny of the lists submitted on December 28 and 29 will take place from December 30 to January 4. If corrections are required, parties will be allowed to make adjustments between January 5 and 11. Verification of the lists will be conducted from January 12 to 17. The preliminary closed list will be published on January 18, while the final list is scheduled for publication on February 3.

A total of 100 political parties, using 93 election symbols, have applied to participate in the PR system. Each party is required to submit a list containing between 11 and 110 candidates.

For the HoR elections scheduled for March 5, the number of registered voters stands at 18,903,689. Voters will cast their votes using two separate ballots: one for the direct election and another for the proportional representation system.