Sarlahi, Jan. 28 -- During the 2022 House of Representatives election, Sher Bahadur Deuba was leading the Nepali Congress. At the time, general secretary Gagan Thapa pushed to field economist and former National Planning Commission vice-chair Swarnim Wagle as the party's candidate. Thapa was ready to vacate his long-held Kathmandu-4 seat to make room for Wagle and planned to contest from Sarlahi-4 instead.

Deuba rejected the proposal. He awarded the Kathmandu-4 ticket to former Nepal Students' Union president Nain Singh Mahar. When Thapa's supporters learnt that Mahar had collected the ticket from the Prime Minister's official residence in Baluwatar, they stepped in, blocking him from filing his nomination papers. Thapa eventually stayed...