Parliamentary Committee Chairs Set to be Elected Unopposed

Kathmandu. The chairs of 9 thematic committees under the House of Representatives and 1 joint committee (House of Representatives and National Assembly) are set to be elected unopposed on Thursday. Among those elected unopposed are 9 lawmakers from the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) and one from the main opposition party, the Nepali Congress.

The time for filing nominations for committee chairs was set from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM on Thursday. Since only one candidate filed for each of the 10 committees within that timeframe, all have been elected unopposed.

In the House of Representatives meeting on Chait 27, Speaker Dol Prasad Aryal read out the names of the members of all committees and scheduled the election of chairs for Baishakh 4 (tomorrow).

As only one candidate filed for each committee, the meetings scheduled for tomorrow will simply formalize the unopposed election. The Rastriya Swatantra Party holds a comfortable majority in the 275-member House of Representatives, with 182 lawmakers, and maintains a majority in all committees.

The RSP parliamentary party meeting held on Thursday decided to field its own candidates for 9 House of Representatives committees and 1 joint committee, while leaving the Public Accounts Committee chair to the main opposition party.

Committee Chairs Elected Unopposed from RSP

Samiksha Baskota was fielded as the unopposed chair for the Law, Justice, and Human Rights Committee. Elected through the proportional representation system, she joined the RSP shortly before the House of Representatives election from Bibeksheel Sajha.

Ashok Kumar Chaudhary, who was elected unopposed as chair of the Agriculture, Cooperatives, and Natural Resources Committee, is a lawmaker elected from Sunsari-3. A central committee member of the party, Chaudhary was a proportional representative lawmaker in 2079 BS.

Ashish Gajurel, elected unopposed as chair of the Infrastructure Development Committee, is a lawmaker elected from Sindhuli-2. He is also an infrastructure expert.

Aakriti Awasthi, elected unopposed as chair of the Women and Social Affairs Committee, is from Amargadhi, Dadeldhura. She became a lawmaker through the proportional representation system and is the sister of Mukesh, who was injured in the Gen-Z movement.

Hari Dhakal, elected unopposed as chair of the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee, was elected as a lawmaker from Chitwan-1. Bodh Narayan Shrestha, elected unopposed to the Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee, is a lawmaker elected from Dhading-2. This is a joint committee.

Rahbar Ansari, elected unopposed to the Industry, Commerce, Labor, and Consumer Welfare Committee, is a directly elected lawmaker from Bara-4. Sumnima Udas, elected unopposed to the International Relations and Tourism Committee, was also selected as a lawmaker through the proportional representation system.

Krishna Hari Budhathoki, elected unopposed as chair of the Finance Committee, was directly elected from Ramechhap.

Congress's Khadka Unopposed in Public Accounts Committee

Similarly, Bharat Bahadur Khadka from the main opposition party, the Nepali Congress, has been elected unopposed as chair of the Public Accounts Committee. The RSP had decided to support him.

Two candidates each have filed for the chairs of the House of Representatives' Education, Health, and Information Technology Committee and the joint committee on the Implementation, Monitoring, and Evaluation of State Directive Principles, Policies, and Obligations. For the Education Committee, Ojaswi Sherchan from the Rastriya Swatantra Party and Guru Baral from the UML have filed their candidacies.

For the joint committee on the Implementation, Monitoring, and Evaluation of State Directive Principles, Policies, and Obligations, Madankumari Shah from the Nepal Communist Party and Ganesh Karki from the Rastriya Swatantra Party have registered their candidacies.