Dhankuta, March 9: The House of Representatives election in Dhankuta showed an unexpected trend. The CPN UML, long considered strong in the district, faced a challenge in its traditional bases as the Shram Sanskriti Party secured notable support.
Shram Sanskriti candidate San Bahadur Rai received strong votes in Sangurigadhi, Chaubise, and Shahidbhumi rural municipalities. During the vote count in all wards of Sangurigadhi and about half the wards in Chaubise, Rai even led UML candidate Rajendra Kumar Rai by nearly 1,000 votes at one point.
Although the Shram Sanskriti Party drew some support from the Nepali Congress, the Nepal Communist Party, and the Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal, most of its votes appear to have shifted from the UML.
This shift was particularly visible in areas with a large Indigenous population, where many voters were attracted to the new party.
In the final result, UML candidate Rajendra Kumar Rai won the seat with 18,132 votes. San Bahadur Rai of the Shram Sanskriti Party secured 11,932 votes and finished third.
In the 2022 parliamentary election, Rajendra Rai had won the seat with 30,101 votes without an alliance. This time he received only 18,132 votes, a decline of 11,969 votes for the UML.
In the previous election, UML received 4,182 votes in Chaubise rural municipality. This time it secured only 2,743 votes, a drop of 1,439 votes. The Shram Sanskriti Party received 2,090 votes in the same area.
In several wards that UML had previously won, the new party made noticeable gains.
In Sangurigadhi rural municipality, the Shram Sanskriti Party received 3,236 votes, ahead of UML’s 2,399 votes. In the previous election, UML had secured 3,744 votes here. This time its vote declined by 1,345.
UML also lost support in Shahidbhumi rural municipality. Its vote fell from 4,273 in the previous election to 2,675 this time, a drop of 1,598 votes. The Shram Sanskriti Party received 2,508 votes in the area.
Dhankuta has 118,425 registered voters, but only 64,091 people voted this time, a turnout of 54 percent. Of the ballots cast, 59,208 were valid, and 4,883 were invalid.
Although UML retained the seat, analysts say the rise of the Shram Sanskriti Party in Indigenous-dominated areas and traditional UML strongholds shows a clear shift in voter preference.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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