Himal Press 
JANAKPURDHAM: Even though the Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) Nepal has formed an alliance with the Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML for the National Assembly elections, its candidates did not withdraw their nominations on Sunday.
According to the election program published by the Election Commission (EC), Sunday was the deadline to withdraw nominations. The Madhesh Province office of the EC said no nominations had been withdrawn. Subhash Babu Puri, the election officer at the National Assembly Election Office in Madhesh Province, told Himal Press that all 11 candidates remain in the race.
As per the agreement among the three parties, the NC was to field candidates for two seats, and the UML and JSP Nepal for one seat each. Mahantha Thakur of the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party (LSP) Nepal, which has agreed to unify with JSP Nepal, filed his nomination from the ‘others’ cluster.
Going against the agreement, JSP Nepal also filed candidates for three other seats—Chameli Devi Das from the Dalit cluster, Chandrakala Sah from the women’s cluster, and Shailesh Chaudhary from the minority cluster.
JSP Nepal leaders had earlier said that they filed the nominations seeking an additional seat from the alliance and that they would withdraw the candidacies if an agreement was reached.
An agreement on party unification reached on Sunday between JSP Nepal and LSP Nepal states that those candidacies will be rendered inactive. However, JSP Nepal did not withdraw the nominations.
Jitendra Prasad Sonar, a leader of LSP Nepal before the unification, said they could not withdraw the nominations since the deadline had already passed. “We have reached an agreement to deactivate the candidacies. I request one and all not to harbour any doubt,” he added.
From the alliance, Rekha Jha (UML) has filed a nomination from the women’s cluster, while Ranjit Karn (NC) and Dharmendra Paswan (NC) have filed candidacies from the Dalit and minority clusters, respectively.
