By Our Reporter
In the next four days, the people of the three constituencies of Bara, Chitwan and Tanahun are going to elect their new representatives to the House of Representatives.
The seats of the HR in Bara-2, Chitwan-2 and Tanahun-1 have fallen vacant after Ram Sahay Yadav got elected the vice president, Supreme Court dismissed Rabi Lamichhane’s position of lawmaker and Ramchandra Paudel got elected the President respectively.
The three parties, which had won the elections in the concerned constituencies in November 2022 polls, have made the by-election an issue of prestige while others have been making their efforts to snatch the seats.
Lamichhane, chairman of Rastriya Swatantra Party, is contesting the election in Chitwan-2 from where he was elected in November while Janta Samajwadi Party-Nepal Chairman Upendra Yadav is contesting in Bara-2 from where his party’s Ram Sahay Yadav was elected. Likewise, NC’s Govinda Bhattarai is contesting from Tanahun-1 from where Ramchnadra Paudel was elected in November.
While Upendra Yadav is applying all his strength to get elected from Bara-2 in the support of the ruling parties including the Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist-Centre) and the Loktantraik Samajwadi Party, the Janamat Party has used its strength to defeat Yadav. Shivachandra Prasad Kushahawa who contested the election from the Maoist Centre in November and lost with a margin of only 354 votes is now the Janamat Party candidate, and he is posing a threat to Yadav.
In Tanahun-1 and Chitwan-2, the NC and the ruling coalition parties have thrown their strength against Rastriya Swatantra Party candidates—Rabi Lamichhane and Dr. Swarnim Wagle. It seems NC has made the seat of Tanahun an issue of prestige because Wagle has become the RSP candidate by deserting NC. Wagle, a strong critic of Arzu Rana, the spouse of NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba, is likely to win the election after many NC supporters, former NC leader Govinda Raj Joshi and others have backed him. Although NC candidate Govinda Bhattarai is also a popular figure, the voters may pour their anger against Deuba and Arzu which could result in Bhattarai’s defeat. Considering this, almost all NC leaders have reached Tanahun demanding the vote for Bhattarai. Not only NC leaders, but the leaders of other coalition parties have also asking votes for Govinda. If Wagle gets elected from Tanahun, it will be a big slap to Deuba and his spouse who reportedly have the upper hand in state affairs. UML’s Sarbendra Khanal is a candidate in Tanahun.
Similarly, the NC and UML have concentrated their effort to defeat Lamichhane from Chitwan-2. Leaders of both the NC and UML have thronged Chitwan to make their candidates victorious, but it looks unlikely they could succeed in their mission considering the votes garnered by Lamichhane in November polls. Jit Narayan Shrestha is contesting the election from NC and Ram Chandra Neupane from the CPN-UML.
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