Madhes-based parties will support Nepali Congress (NC) candidates in a few constituencies in return for NC's support for Federal Socialist Forum Nepal (FSFN) Chairman Upendra Yadav and member of the chairman council of Rastriya Janata Party Nepal (RJP) Mahantha Thakur.
NC leader Bal Krishna Khand confirmed that NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba and RJP leader Thakur reached an agreement to that regard
on Friday. "They said we must support over a dozen candidates of theirs before filing of nominations. We were not in a position to leave so many constituencies," Khand stated. "We reached an agreement to support a few of their leaders after filing of nominations and have accordingly decided to support them," he added.
He revealed that RJP and FSFN will also reciprocate after NC decided to support their leaders. "We wanted them to not field candidate against Bimalendra Nidhi. Rajendra Mahato may not relinquish his candidacy for Nidhi there but we will still make efforts," he said. Nidhi and Mahato are both contesting from Dhanusa-3 for the federal parliament.
NC will submit the name of the NC candidates to FSFN and RJP to support after internal discussions. The parties are talking about support for Finance Minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki in Sunsari-4 and Pradeep Giri in Siraha-1 if Mahato refuses to support Nidhi.
NC had earlier on Sunday withdrawn its candidate from Mahottari-3 to support Thakur while withdrawal of candidacy in Saptari-2 to support Yadav was not possible due to technical reasons.
NC had made efforts for alliance with FSFN and RJP across Province 2 but the three-party alliance did not materialize.
