CPN-UML senior leader and former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal is very active in poll campaigning following the formation of Left Alliance. Leader Nepal, who is a candidate from the alliance from Kathmandu constituency 2, is confident on clear majority of the alliance.

Despite being on the committee to distribute election tickets, CPN-UML’s vice chairman, Yubaraj Gyawali has publicly stated that he couldn’t compete in the elections because of expensive party tickets.

Surya Prasad Shrestha was the chief Election Commissioner both during the last Panchayat election of 1986 and during the first parliamentary election of 1991. In the historical context, how does this old observer of Nepal’s election process see the upcoming federal and provincial elections? Mahabir Paudyal caught up with him at his Maharajgunj residence Tuesday evening.

Tao Zhang, deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is visiting Nepal this week on the invitation of Nepali authorities. The visit of the senior IMF official comes in the wake of a forecast that Nepal's economy will grow at a moderate pace after achieving 7.5 percent of real GDP growth rate in the last fiscal year.

Nepali Congress believes the new left alliance between CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center) is a prelude to ‘totalitarian rule.’ Is there some solid basis to this allegation or is Congress cooking up yet another hate story against their electoral opponents? Nepali Congress Central Working Committee member and ex-foreign minister Prakash Sharan Mahat, who is also contesting election from Kathmandu constituency number 5, shared his views with Mahabir Paudyal and Kosh Raj Koirala on Wednesday afternoon.

Political analyst Hari Roka is all for the new left alliance, which he thinks will help to clearly demarcate the leftist and rightist forces in Nepali politics. The one-time Maoist lawmaker shared his insights on the new alliance and its electoral prospects with Mahabir Paudyal and Prashant Lamichhane.

CPN (Maoist Center) on Tuesday decided to continue to be a part of Deuba government, even with the humiliation of its ministers being stripped off their portfolios. It reportedly did so to thwart the ‘conspiracies to postpone elections’. Seriously? Former deputy prime minister and senior Maoist leader Top Bahadur Rayamajhi spoke to Mahabir Paudyal and Ashok Dahal.

An important aspect for this is world’s participation with respect to creating open data. Where does the data come from? Certainly, there is existing data that the government has. But, then we are talking about community-based data generation. So the communities themselves making decision about what data they want to have collected, what they like to be able to share and how that process might work.

The announcement of electoral alliance, and an eventual merger, between CPN-UML, CPN (Maoist Center) and Naya Shakti Nepal promises to bring a sea change to Nepali politics. How did this sudden alliance become possible? How will it impact national politics? And what will be its major agendas? Former Prime Minister and coordinator of Naya Shakti Party Nepal, Baburam Bhattarai, shared his insights with Subhash Ghimire, Gunaraj Luitel and Mahabir Paudyal on Wednesday morning.

Constitutional expert and adjunct professor at Howard University School of Law Waris Husain has closely studied Nepal’s constitutional process and interacted extensively with Nepali lawmakers, civil society leaders, judges, students of law and common people. His goal is to find out the challenges to the implementation of the new Nepali constitution. Thira L Bhusal caught up with Husain during his most recent Nepal visit.