Dec 21, Kathmandu: Kathmandu: Voting for the Nepali Congress parliamentary party election has started.

The polling which was supposed to start at 8 am today at the Congress Parliamentary Party office in Singhdarbar has been delayed a little. Voting started a little late due to a dispute over whether or not mobile phones should be taken to the booth. Voting started after agreeing not to take mobile phones to the booth.

Security has been tightened at the polling station of the parliamentary party. The police allowed MPs and visitors to enter only after looking at their names and identity cards, while journalists were barred from entering. Journalists are kept in street boxes for reporting.

Chairman Sher Bahadur Deuba and General Minister Gagan Thapa have been nominated for party leader. With the establishment and other groups making General Minister Thapa a common candidate, there will be a competition between Deuba and Thapa for the party leader.

Leader Ramchandra Paudel is the proposer of Chairman Deuba, while Deputy Chairman Purna Bahadur Khadka is a supporter. Thapa's proponent is Dr. Shekhar Koirala, while the supporters are Deputy Chairman Dhanraj Gurung, General Minister Vishwaprakash Sharma, and leader Pradeep Poudel.

There are 89 voters in the Congress parliamentary party. 50% of the vote is required to elect the leader of the party. According to this, it seems that the support of 45 MPs should be gathered to become the leader of the party.