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CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is currently in Japan, held a meeting with Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) senior leader Toshihiro Nikai on Tuesday. The LDP is the ruling party of Japan.

Nikai is the LDP's former general secretary, former economy, trade and industry minister and is a member in the House of Representatives. He is also the President of Nepal-Japan Parliamentary Committee. He was accompanied by other senior leaders in Japan during the meeting with the former Prime Minister of Nepal.

The meeting focused on various aspects of Nepal-Japan relations, according to Dahal's secretariat.

The two leaders discussed the ways for further consolidating the bilateral relations between the two neighbors. Besides, exchange of high-level visits between the two countries and the establishment of sisterly relations between cities in both countries were also discussed in the meeting.    

On the occasion, leader Dahal urged the Government of Japan to increase the scale of its assistance to Nepal's agriculture, tourism, hydropower and physical infrastructure development sectors.

Putting all speculations to rest, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday made a BIG announcement – ''alliance with the BJP is over.''

Although a formal announcement is yet to be made in this regard, sources said that Nitish Kumar-led JDU has decided to part ways with the BJP during a crucial meeting of party MLAs, ZEE reported.

The Election Commission has said that it would make the voter education program effective to prevent the invalidation of ballot papers in the elections.

At a program organized at the Election Commission on Tuesday, Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya said that the voter education program would be made effective by correcting the past mistakes.

During a discussion with the mediapersons, EC spokesperson Shaligram Sharma Paudel said that the poll body sought suggestions to make the voter education more effective.

He further said that the 116 parties registered at the Commission have been urged to register the parties again to take part in the upcoming elections.

Paudel said that an application with the decision of the Central Committee should be submitted to the Election Commission if two or more than two parties want to contest the elections with the same electoral symbol.

He was of the opinion that the preparations for the upcoming elections are going on in full swing.

The federal and provincial elections are going to be held on November 20.

The Election Commission has endorsed the election calendar for the parliamentary and provincial elections scheduled for November 20.

According to the election calendar, filing of nominations for both federal and provincial elections under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) category will take place on October 9.

The poll body approved the calendar for the internal purposes to prepare and organize the elections.

Political parties registered at the Election Commission till August 4, 2022 to take part in the direct and proportional elections have been asked to register the parties from August 7 to 16.

As per the election calendar, elections officers will be appointed on September 27, offices will be established on October 7, printing of ballot papers will start from October 14, transportation of election materials will start from November 2, silence period will start from November 17 and voting will start at 7 in the morning till 5 in the evening on November 20.

Chief election officers’ offices and election officers’ offices will be established in 77 districts and in 88 places respectively to conduct elections for 165 House of Representatives (HoR) seats and 330 Provincial Assembly seats.

Similarly, the offices for the election under the Proportional Representation category will be established on August 15.

The Election Commission has decided to start printing ballot papers for the election under the Proportional Representation category from September 5 and to present a closed list on September 18-19.

The Commission, however, is yet to officially publish the schedule.

The election body will also issue a notice about the elections in the Nepal Gazette also.