KATHMANDU: Lawmakers from the CPN-UML, Nepali Communist Party, and the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) have filed nominations for the presidents of various parliamentary committees under the Federal Parliament on Thursday.

At the Federal Parliament Secretariat in Singha Durbar, the parties registered their candidates for the leadership of both House of Representatives’ thematic committees and joint committees.

From the CPN-UML, Guru Baral has filed his candidacy for the chairperson of the Education, Health and Information Technology Committee. His nomination was proposed by Nepali Congress MP Sita Thapaliya (Urmila).

Meanwhile, the Nepali Communist Party has fielded Madan Kumari Sah for the chairperson of the Joint Committee on Directive Principles, Policies and Responsibilities of the State. Her nomination was proposed and supported by Janakraj Joshi and Pushparaj Kandel.

The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has also entered the race strongly, filing nominations for 11 out of 12 committee chair positions in the House of Representatives and joint committees.

RSP candidates include Samikshya Baskota for the Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee, Ashok Kumar Chaudhary for Agriculture, Cooperatives and Natural Resources, Ashish Gajurel for Infrastructure Development, Aakriti Awasthi for Women and Social Affairs, Hari Dhakal for State Affairs and Good Governance, Ojashwi Sherchan for Education, Health and Information Technology, Krishnahari Budhathoki for Finance, Rahbar Ansari for Industry, Commerce, Labour and Consumer Welfare, and Sumnima Udas for International Relations and Tourism Committee.

For joint committees, Bodh Narayan Shrestha has been nominated for the Parliamentary Hearing Committee, while Ganesh Karki has filed his candidacy for the Committee on Monitoring and Evaluation of Directive Principles and State Responsibilities.

RSP has, however, decided to support the main opposition party, Nepali Congress, for the chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee.

Party leaders said the nominations were finalized during a parliamentary party meeting held earlier on Thursday, while members for the committees had already been selected previously.