By Our Reporter
After the by-election to the House of Representatives held on April 23, the leaders of the big parties are probably having sleepless nights fearing their political future. Most worried is probably Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba after his party failed to retain the Tanahun-1 constituency from where President Ram Chandra Paudel as an NC candidate was elected with a margin of over 5,000 votes on November 20, 2022. But this time, NC candidate Govinda Bhattarai lost the election by a margin of over 14,000 votes to Rastriya Swatantra Party candidate Dr. Swarnim Wagle.
Moreover, Wagle had deserted the NC accusing Deuba and his wife Arzu Rana of being responsible for the bad governance and other malpractices in the party and government.
Not only in Tanahun but also in Chitwan the NC as well as the UML fared worse in the by-election than in the November election. They lost the election by a margin of 43,000 votes to RSP chairman Rabi Lamichhane.
When the people and even party cadres voted against the party candidates, the party workers have been criticising the party leadership of both the NC and UML. Although the UML cadres and leaders do not dare to challenge party chair KP Sharma Oli openly, NC president Deuba is facing challenges even from the party general secretaries Gagan Kumar Thapa and Bishwa Prakash Sharma. They have openly blamed Deuba for the poor show of the party.
Recently, Thapa tweeted that what Deuba was doing at the party was beyond tolerance. Likewise, Sharma threatened to quit the post of party general secretary if he is not given the responsibility as per the party status.
The RSP won the elections from the votes of the traditional voters of NC and the UML. In Tanahun, even the Maoist voters poured their votes to Wagle even when Bhattarai was a common candidate of the ruling alliance.
Although many had argued that the popularity of RSP and its chair has shrunk, the reality as shown by the by–election results was otherwise. While Lamichhane got 5,000 more votes than he had garnered five months earlier, Wagle also won by a big margin. The by-election results clearly hinted that the RSP will leave the traditional parties far behind in the next general elections. Moreover, there is a fear that many of the NC and UML leaders who are denied tickets in the election can join the RSP and win elections like Wagle did this time. Until now, the leaders have been distributing tickets to the leaders close to them or belonging to their group. As such, honest and competent leaders cannot get the ticket, and they have no option but to choose RSP. And it is not difficult for NC leaders to join RSP as the latter has emerged as the alternative democratic force. RSP could sweep elections in the urban areas and hills while Janamat Party could do the same in the Tarai.
Again, when the party cadres are not happy with the way the leadership are functioning, the involvement of party office bearers, leaders, lawmakers and spouses of the party president and leaders in the scam related to fake Bhutanese refugees have further damaged the images of the old big parties.
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