Narayan Dahal elected as National Assembly chair (With video)

CPN (Maoist Centre) candidate Narayan Dahal has been elected as the chairman of the National Assembly.

In the election held today, Dahal garnered 39 votes while his contender Yuvaraj Sharma of the Nepali Congress secured 17 votes.

After Dahal obtained majority votes, Vice-Chairperson Urmila Aryal announced that he was elected as the chairman of the upper house.

A total of 56 lawmakers were present in the election.

Gopi Bahadur Sarki proposed Dahal for the post while Devendra Dahal of CPN-UML, Beduram Bhusal of CPN (Unified Socialist) and Mohammad Khalid of Janata Samajbadi Party seconded the proposal.

Dahal is the brother of Prime Minister and CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

He was nominated as a member of the National Assembly by the President on the recommendation of the government in 2021.

With the formation of a new alliance, an agreement was reached among CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli, CPN (Maoist Center) Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Rastriya Swatantra Party President Rabi Lamichhane and Janata Samajbadi Party Chairman Upendra Yadav to support the candidate of Maoist Center for National Assembly chair and UML for vice-chair.

The position remained vacant after Ganesh Timilsina retired after completing his six-year tenure on March 3.