By Our Reporter
Although the election code of conduct prevents Prime Minister and Ministers from addressing the election rallies by spending government coffer, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is now in a nationwide tour to address the election rallies.
PM and Nepali Congress president Deuba is touring the country for a week beginning from Wednesday to address election rallies of the Nepali Congress.
According to a decision of NC Local Level Election Central Mobilisation Committee, PM Deuba and other NC leaders will address 10 rallies in total from Biratnagar in the east to Dadeldhura in the west in a week from May 4 to May 10, read a statement issued by Chief Secretary of Nepali Congress Central Office Krishna Prasad Paudel on Tuesday.
Accordingly, PM Deuba addressed a rally in Biratnagar on Wednesday.
Senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel, general secretary Bishwa Prakash Sharma and other leaders also addressed the rally in Biratnagar.
The PM and leader Paudel will reach Bharatpur on Thursday to address another election rally. Deuba as well as Maist Centre chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal had made Bharatpur an issue of their prestige after NC leader Jagannath Paudel fielded his candidacy for mayor against the party decision to support Maoist Centre Candidate Renu Dhakal.
Deuba will address the election rally in Kathmandu on Friday.
He is scheduled to address three election rallies on Saturday, in Butwal at 11.00 in the morning, in Damauli, Tanahun, at 12.30 and in Janakpur, Dhanusha at 2.00.
Likewise, on Sunday (May 8) the PM will address two rallies—one in Pokhara at 11.00 in the morning and in Dang at 2.00 in the afternoon.
The PM will address another rally in Kailali on May 9 before wrapping up his tour after addressing one in his home district Dadeldhura on May 10.
Besides PM and Paudel, vice president Dhan Raj Gurung, General Secretaries Gagan Kumar Thapa and Bishwa Prakash Sharma and joint general secretaries will also address these rallies.
Rebel candidates spoil five-party alliance
The ruling five parties which swept the National Assembly election held in January this year are not likely to produce similar results in the upcoming local polls thanks to the revolt by NC leaders and cadres in many local levels.
The Maoist Centre and the CPN (Unified Socialist) are likely to be affected by the poor implementation of the electoral alliance among the ruling parties. When NC leaders have fielded their candidates against the mayoral candidates of the alliance in two Metropolitan Cities where the centre had decided to field mayoral candidates from the Maoist Centre and CPN (Unified Socialist), the official candidates of the alliance are likely to suffer defeat.
When Renu Dahal of Bharatpur is likely to lose the election of Mayor because of the candidacy of Jagannath Paudel, an influential NC leader, CPN (Unified Socialist) candidate Dhanraj Acharya is also facing similar situation because of an independent candidate from the NC.
If the Dahal loses election in Bharatpur, the alliance could break as Maoist Centre chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has made the mayoral post of Bharapur as an issue of prestige. It won’t be surprise if Dahal forges alliance with the CPN-UML in the parliamentary election in November.
Surprisingly, the Maoist Centre and the CPN (Unified Socialist) have agreed to give seven of 11 mayoral posts in the Sub-Metropolitan Cities and three of six mayoral posts in metropolis is facing rebel candidates from the NC leaders. In most of the wards, NC has fielded its own candidates. As such, the local level poll results are not likely to be satisfactory for the two communist parties in the ruling coalition. Janamorcha, another party of the ruling alliance has received negligible seats in municipalities of Gandaki province. However, the Janata Samjwadi party, which is given Birgunj metropolis and Janakpur sub-metropolis will be contesting friendly elections with the ruling party candidates in Province 2.
Parties distributing sweet dreams
Elections in Nepal are an opportunity to sell dream to the people. In 2017 poll, UML won the elections selling the dream of train and ship along with the nationalist slogans. But over the year, neither the people could see a train passing through Pokhara to Mustang nor ship floating in the Koshi and Narayani rivers, as said by KP Oli Sharma. Nationalism weakened further as the Indian hegemony deepened further in the last five years.
This time too the parties have used the local polls to sell dreams. As usual, they have made tall talks ignoring the common problems facing by the people. The manifestos lack plans to generate income for the people although almost all parties have pledged to increase production in their manifesto. However, production increase has been a main slogan since 1990 but the country has become more dependent on foreign countries even on foods over the years. Nepal, an agrarian country which used to export rice in 1980s now imports rice and maize worth billions of rupees every year. The manifestos sans plans to reduce or control of food imports. Several industries opened in the cooperation of neighbourly and friendly nations were shut after the advent of democracy in 1990 but the political parties have no plan to reopen them or reestablish similar industries.
The people are facing several problems. They have no employment opportunities in home and they are sending their family members abroad as migrant workers whereas the youth of the well-off families are immigrating to US and Australia. They lack water to drink and irrigate their farms. Contradicting laws and regulations prevent people from using local goods like timber. The country is importing timber from Malaysia and India and the community and other forests have huge heaps of lying tree trunks and logs. If the government eases for the use of such wood, import of the timber could be reduced to great extent.
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