Kathmandu: Altogether 2,219 candidates have filed nominations from 240 constituencies for the crucial April 10 Constituent Assembly polls in Nepal that are being boycotted by the agitating Terai groups.

In total, 74 registered political parties are in the fray and major parties Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist are contesting all 240 seats under the first-past-the post electoral system, according to the Election Commission.

Out of total 601 Assembly seats, 240 candidates will be elected through direct voting system and 335 will be elected through proportionate voting system. The remaining 26 candidates will be nominated by the Prime Minister.

The highest number of candidates are contesting in Kathmandu district which has 10 constituencies. As many as 221 candidates, including Maoist chief Prachanda, have filed nominations from the valley.

Manang district, which has a single constituency, has only the lowest-- three -- candidates in fray. Prachanda has filed his candidacy from Kathmandu Constituency number 10 and Rolpa Constituency number 2.

"Now the country is heading toward building a new Nepal as per the wishes of the great martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the sake of people's sovereignty," Prachanda, who led a decade long armed struggle against the monrachy, told reporters after filing the nominations.

The newly elected Constituent Assembly will frame the Constitution and decide the fate of monarchy in line with a 2006 peace agreement signed by the government and Maoists.

But the elections which have been twice deferred are being held in the shadow of a stir by Indian-origin Madhesi community in Terai which alleges marginalisation and is demanding an autonomous region.
Source : PTI