Nepali Congress General Secretary Gagan Thapa will contest against Congress President and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba in Wednesday’s election for the position of Parliament Party Leader. 

Dr Shekhar Koirala, the leader of an “anti-establishment” camp in the Nepali Congress Party will propose Thapa as the rival faction’s candidate for the parliamentary party leader against Deuba. 
In return, Thapa will propose Koirala as the faction’s candidate for the Congress president during the party’s 15th general convention scheduled in 2026. Koirala had challenged Deuba in the party’s 14th general convention held in December 2021. 

Deuba was re-elected the party president in a run-off election as the first round election was inconclusive with neither of the four contenders securing 50 percent + 1 vote to be elected the party president.

Thapa was elected for the first time as a member of the Constituent Assembly in 2008 under the Proportional Representation system. He was re-elected in 2013 from his home constituency of Kathmandu-4. 

The 46-year-old has represented that constituency ever since. He was re-elected to the House of Representatives in 2017 and most recently in November 2022.