Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's Nepali Congress-led ruling coalition maintained its lead in Nepal’s parliamentary election after its candidate from Syangja constituency No 2 Dhanraj Gurung won the election from the seat, sources from the Election Commission said.

Gurung defeated his nearest rival Padma Kumari Aryal of the CPN (UML) and secured 31,466 votes against Aryal who bagged 25,839 votes.

With this the Nepali Congress has bagged 57 House of Representatives (HoR) seats under direct election and the party has ranked first in the HoR followed by CPN-UML, which has won on 44 seats so far.?

CPN- Maoist Centre has bagged 17 seats while CPN-Unified Socialist has won 10 seats under direct election.?

So far counting of 163 constituencies have been completed with the counting remained for just two seats.

Counting for three constituencies, Syangja - 2 Bajura and Dolakha began late as elections were postponed in these constituencies due dispute between different groups.?

In the 275-member House of Representatives, 165 will be elected through direct voting, while the remaining 110 will be elected through a proportional electoral system.

A party needs at least 138 seats to form a majority government.

The five-party ruling alliance, which includes the NC, CPN-Maoist Centre, CPN-Unified Socialist, Loktantrik Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janamorcha has a combined strength of 85 seats in the HoR under direct election, followed by the Opposition CPN-UML alliance with 57 seats.
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