Himal Press 
Nepali Congress Central Party Office
KATHMANDU: With candidates from the UML–Nepali Congress (NC) alliance elected in the National Assembly elections held on Sunday, NC will become the largest party in the upper house once these new members assume office in the first week of March.
With NC’s Sunil Bahadur Thapa already elected unopposed from the Others cluster in Koshi, voting was held across all seven provinces for 17 seats. Candidates backed by the alliance won all the seats.
UML’s Som Portel and Roshni Meche were elected from Koshi. Similarly, Rekha Jha of UML, Mahantha Thakur of JSP Nepal, and Ranjit Karna and Dharmendra Paswan of the NC were elected from Madhesh.
Similarly, Gita Devkota of NC and Dr Prem Prasad Dangal of UML were elected from Bagmati, while Jagat Tilisina of NC and Samjhana Devkota of UML emerged victorious from Gandaki.
In Lumbini, Ram Kumari Jhankri was elected from UML, while Basudev Ghimire and Chandra Bahadur KC were elected from NC. Lalit Jang Shahi of NC and Meena Singh Rakhal of UML were elected from Karnali, while Leela Bhandari of UML and Khamma Bahadur Khati of NC were elected from Sudurpashchim.
Provincial assembly members, and chiefs and deputy chiefs of the local units form the electoral college for the National Assembly elections.
The election has altered the balance of power in the upper house. Once these lawmakers assume office in the first week of March, the Nepal Communist Party (NCP), which is currently the largest party in the National Assembly, will slip to second.
NC, which won nine of the 18 seats in the election, will become the largest party in the upper house with 25 seats. NCP, which had formed an alliance with NC in the election two years ago, is second with 18 seats, while UML has 11.
Nineteen members of the National Assembly are completing their six-year term on March 4. A few of them have already resigned ahead of their terms to contest the House of Representatives elections scheduled for March 5. The election was held to fill the posts that are set to become vacant on March 4.
The upper house consists of 59 members—eight elected from each of the seven provinces and three appointed by the President on the recommendation of the cabinet. The six-year term of a third of these members ends every two years.
