INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
CHITWAN, MAY 5Of all places, Chitwan's Bharatpur has taken the centre stage of the ruling coalition's electoral battle
The coalition has supported CPN-Maoist Centre's candidate Renu Dahal as mayor of the metropolitan city, and the entire power of the
coalition and major leaders of the constituent parties have thrown their weight behind her.
Ruling partners' alliance will
win local elections: Dahal
Independent mayoral candidate in Bharatpur urged
to withdraw
While Nepali Congress veteran leader
Jagannath Poudel has filed his own independent candidacy to challenge Dahal, Bijaya Subedi is vying for the mayoral post from CPN-UML, with
the support Rastriya Prajatantra Party.
Regarding Poudel's nomination, he didn't budge from his decision to contest in the
polls despite the attempts of heavyweights from former home minister to chief justice.Lately, on Wednesday, even NC President and Prime
Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and senior leader Ramchandra Paudel came to Chitwan and tried to convince Poudel to back off, but to no
avail.Though there are a total of16 people in the fray for the mayoral post in the sub-metropolitan city this time, clearly the major fight
is among the three candidates.It is worth noting that Poudel is former National Assembly member and deputy mayor.In the last local polls,
there had been a repeat poll in Ward 19 after Maoist cadres tore up ballot papers during the last leg of the vote count.Dahal, who was then
a common candidate of Nepali Congress and CPN-MC, had won by a margin of 203 votes after the repeat voting.Dahal had secured 43,127 votes
against UML's Devi Gyawali, who got 42,924 votes.Rastriya Prajatantra Party had got 6,842 votes.The battle is interesting this time with a
NC leader contesting as an independent candidate against the coalition candidate and RPP candidate teaming up with the UML in an election
This time, there are over 35,000 new registered voters.Meanwhile, the coalition organised an election gathering in Bharatpur today.NC
president Deuba, senior leader Paudel, CPN-MC Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN-Unified Socialist Chairperson Madhav Kumar Nepal stressed the
need for the coalition to support its candidate Dahal and get her elected for the sake of the nation.A version of this article appears in
the print on May 06, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
This article first appeared/also appeared in https://thehimalayantimes.com