A total of 3,135 candidates have been fielded in the upcoming House of Representatives elections under the proportional representation system. The Election Commission has not only revised the closed list submitted by political parties on December 13 and 14, but also made arbitrary additions and deletions. The commission published the final list on Tuesday by adding candidates whose names were not in the initial list.

Political parties had submitted closed lists of 3,424 candidates for the 110 seats in the proportional representation. There is a provision that political parties must submit closed lists of a maximum of 110 and a minimum of 11 (10 percent) candidates. After examining the closed lists, the commission gave time to the parties concerned to amend the issues that did not match.

The date for withdrawal of names was set for 28 Pus. On that day, 175 candidates from 17 parties withdrew their names. After investigating the complaints of opposition to the claims, the commission removed the names of 76 people from the list.

According to the Election Commission, the final closed list includes 1,772 female and 1,363 male candidates. These candidates belong to 63 political parties. Since some parties jointly took a single election symbol, the total election symbols for the proportional representation will be 57.

According to the Election Commission, there are 1,772 female and 1,363 male candidates in the final closed list.     It has been found that some political parties have extensively altered the closed lists they initially submitted. The closed lists submitted to the commission were not formally made public by the political parties. The parties that changed their names the most are the Rastriya Swatantra Party, Nepali Communist Party and Janmat Party. 

The Congress and the UML have also changed some names. The candidates withdrew/had their names taken and another name sent to the commission by the party. It has been found that some names were voluntarily withdrawn by the parties and another name was sent.

After the RSVP's closed list was made public, more than a dozen announced their withdrawal of their names due to criticism and controversy. However, only two candidates withdrew their names on 10 December. However, the RSVP itself removed the names of 36 others from the previous list. In cases where the inclusive group was not agreed upon or the necessary documents were not received, the RSVP used the period given to correct it to change the name. 

The commission had sent a letter to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on 20 December, asking it to send the citizenship, approval and self-declaration forms of 65 people included in the closed list in a proper manner. The party has changed the names saying that the relevant candidates were not contacted due to the insufficient documents required to be sent.

While the RSSS removed some names from the previous closed list, the names that were in dispute remain. After the closed list was controversial, some candidates announced on social media that they had withdrawn their candidacies. 

In the closed list initially submitted by the RSSS, Tasi Lhajom, Trishala Gurung, Sunita Nhemafuki, Maya Dolma Lama, Satyakala Rai and Tulsa Waiwa, who are in the indigenous women's 'cluster', are not in the final list. Basumaya Tamang, Bhumika Shrestha, Sujata Tamang, Kripa Maharjan, Jina Bista, Geeta Sikrakar and Uma Ghale Tamang have been included in their place. 

Ranju Darshana, Sirjana Wali, Sita Devi Pandey and Sarla Lamichhane have been removed from the Khas Arya women's 'cluster' and Shrishti Bhattarai, Aakriti Awasthi, Shobha Khanal, Ratna Kumari Thapa and Shobha Karki have been included. Ramji Ram, Sajan Bik and Kishore Gandharva have been removed from the Dalit men's 'cluster'. Vijay Jairu, Govinda Lohar and Hiralal Badi have been placed in those places. Girjadevi Malla has been removed from the Dalit women's list and Anita Nepali has been made a candidate.   Milan Limbu, Dharmalal Tamang, Tasi Lakpa Sherpa and Mahendra Lawati have been replaced by Sunil Bhakta Shrestha, Som Bahadur Lalchan, Kharka Bahadur Bura and Manoj Rajbanshi from the indigenous men's 'cluster'. Bipin Kumar Acharya, Sachin Dhakal, Anup Kumar Upadhyay, Araniko Pandey, Govinda Narayan and Durga Bahadur Ghimire have been removed from the Khas Arya men's 'cluster'. Harish Prasad Bhatta, Ichcha Ram Karki, Maheshwar Ghimire, Prakash Bahadur Bohara and Cholaprasad Basyal have been placed in their place. 

Among those removed from the proportional list, Ranju Darshana has been made a candidate from Kathmandu-1 and Tasi Lhajom from Humla from the direct list by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

Among the Madhesi men, Abhishek Raj Singh, Sudan Jha and Ranjit Panjiyar, who were on the initial list, are not on the final list. Ram Prakash Mahato and Uday Prakash have been placed in their place. Among the Madhesi women, Mamta Sharma, Samjhana Pandit and Manisha Kumari have been replaced by Sarita Mahato, Sunita Kumari Chaudhary, Poonam Sah and Manju Singh. Among the Tharu men, Som Prasad Chaudhary has been removed and Govinda Bahadur Tharu has been made a candidate. The names of Urmila Chaudhary and Balika Chaudhary, who were on the Tharu women's list, are not on the final list. 

Syed Waqar Ahmed Shah has been replaced in the Muslim men's list, while Afsana Banu and Ghazala Samim Mikrani have been included in the Muslim women's list, replacing Mohana Ansari and Samiun Nisha. 

Among those removed from the proportional list, Ranju Darshana has been nominated as a direct candidate in Kathmandu-1 and Tashi Lhajom in Humla by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) party.

The name of President Ram Chandra Poudel's daughter Sanjaya Poudel was included in the closed list submitted by the Congress to the commission. Her name was removed after criticism increased. The name of former President Ram Baran Yadav's son Chandra Mohan Yadav was included in two places. The final closed list has only one place.  An official of the commission said that the commission was somewhat flexible, realizing that the RSS had problems after the merger with Ujjwal Nepal and the subsequent exit from the merger process. According to him, one of the candidates had not reached the age limit. The RSS has sent another name in his place.

The closed list submitted by the Congress to the commission included the name of President Ramchandra Poudel's daughter Sanjaya Poudel. Her name has been withdrawn after criticism increased. 

Dhruv Bahadur Malla and Sirjana Malla had withdrawn their names from the Congress. The names were at number 94 and 71 respectively in the closed list initially submitted by the party. The names of Usha Kumari Rawat and Pavitra BK have been placed at number 94 and 71 respectively in the final list.

Five candidates from the UML had withdrawn their names. However, it has been found that other names were also used. Saraswati Rai has been replaced by Hirusara Rana, who was at number 16 in the Janajati women's category, and Mahadev Bhatta has been replaced by Lal Bahadur Rawal, who was at number 63 in the Khas Arya men's category. Laxman Sharma has been placed in place of Duf Kumar Bastola, who was at number 64. Saraswati Kumari has been retained in place of Anshu Singh from the Madhesi women's side, who withdrew her name.

Although the candidate herself did not withdraw her name, Smriti Tamang's name has been replaced by Sharmila Gurung, who was at number 14 on the closed list for the tribal women's side. Leela Kumari Bhandari, who was at number 42 in the Khas Arya women's 'cluster', has been removed and Satyadevi Khadka has been placed. Balram Sharma's name from the Khas Arya men's list at number 59 has been changed to Surendra Mohan Sharma. Som Portel and Yom Bahadur Bishwakarma were at numbers 85 and 86 respectively in the Dalit cluster. Tek Bahadur Sunuwar Ghatani and Pradeep Ramtel have the names of those places respectively. Portel was elected as a member of the National Assembly on 11 Magh. Ekwal Miyan was at number 110 on the Muslim side, and Ejaz Alam's name is in the final closed list.

The Nepali Communist Party has also made many changes to the closed list. Balawati Sharma is number 1 among Khas Arya women in the final closed list. Her name was not in the closed list that was initially made public. She is the wife of party leader Devendra Poudel. Poudel himself is also a direct candidate from Nawalparasi (Bardaghat Susta Paschim)-1.

Pavitra Karki KC, Savitri Kumari Karki and Sujata Kafle Shahi, who were not in the initial list, are in the Khas Arya women in the final list. Pancha Singh, Sita Dahal, Jayanand Karki Rawal and Yamuna Guragain have been removed. Jitendra Dahal's name seems to have been removed from the Khas Arya men's list. Only Kamal Ray Yadav and Arvind Das had formally withdrawn their candidacies from the party. They were in the Madhesi men's 'cluster'. Kisun Mandal and Abhimanyu Yadav have been removed from the same 'cluster'. The final closed list includes Anil Pandey, Ram Ashish Das, Rajan Jha and Prem Prasad Kalwar. 

The Rastriya Prajatantra Party has also changed some names in the closed list. The name of Pavitra Shrestha has been removed from the indigenous women's category. The name of Sanumaya Gharti (Tamang) is there. Similarly, Nirmala Shrestha has been brought in place of Kalpana Magar. The name of Gaumaya Shrestha has been removed and Bhavana Roka Magar has been replaced. The name of Shobharana Magar has been replaced by Tara Majhi. The name of Thakur Mohan Shrestha, who was previously at serial number 6, has reached number 8 in the final list. Ashta Maharjan, who was at number 7, has been moved to number 9.

There is a legal provision that the party concerned is not allowed to change the name and order in the closed list submitted for the first time. But the commission has been flexible in this regard. An employee of the commission said that some parties were able to play around in the closed list when the commission remained silent, saying that the task of selecting candidates is the party's.

The Democratic Socialist Party and the Janata Samajwadi Party Nepal had submitted separate closed lists. After submitting the closed lists, the two parties went into the unification process. The Commission also supported the request of the two parties to integrate the closed lists.

House of Representatives election: 3,135 candidates in the proportional representation [with list]

In proportional representation, there is a provision for the concerned party to get seats based on the votes received by the political party. In proportional representation, only candidates from parties that receive three percent or more of the total votes are elected.  Assistant Election Officer for the proportional representation Yagya Bhattarai said that some parties had sent other names after removing candidates who had withdrawn their names, repeated names, or those who had been nominated in different clusters or who were underage. He claimed that the final closed list of the proportional representation was prepared within the law, rules and guidelines.