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KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 13Electoral gains of the CK Raut-led Janmat Party in the parliamentary and provincial elections have surprised many.
Although Raut's party won just one first-past-the-post parliamentary seat - Saptari-2 constituency - the party won 394,655 proportional representation votes in the House of Representatives, securing recognition as a national party.
CK Raut wins Saptari-2 beating Upendra Yadav by 18k+ votes
Janamat Party's candidate Yadav wins PA seat from Saptari- 2(2)
While the rise of Janmat Party is good news for Madhesi voters who want to see changes in the landscape of Madhesi politics, it poses challenges to the two other Madhes centric parties - Upendra Yadav-led Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal and Mahantha Thakur-led Loktantrik Samajbadi Party-Nepal.
Janmat party secured only 26,659 votes less than Upendra Yadav-led Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal, which had emerged as a new but dominant political force in 2008.
Ram Kumar Kamat of The Himalayan Times talked to Raut to know how he felt about the recent poll success and his future plans to address people's problems.
Excerpts:#13;• FACE-TO FACE
How do you look at your and your party's poll success?
I take my victory and victory of my party as people's vote for change.
It is our own party's recognition as a longstanding force struggling in Madhes for people's rights.
That's why the victory we have achieved is due to people's desire for change as well as evaluation of our own work.
People of Madhes have reposed faith in our party in the hope that we will fight for their rights.Your party won a good number of votes in PR election but in the parliamentary FPTP elections, you won just one seat.
Why?
It was a difficult election for us because there were two coalitions led by the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML.
We contested against these two big coalitions.
It was not a fair fight, but still we are happy about the poll outcome.
If you look at the proportional votes we got, we led in so many places so we are happy despite the fact that our candidates were new and from marginalised and poor background, and they were inexperienced as well.Caste politics has always played a big role in Madhes politics.
You won the support of all castes and creeds.
How was that possible?
Of course, Madhes has the problem of caste-based politics.
People are looking for change and they have actually gone beyond the politics of caste.
People of all backgrounds - caste, religion and economic background - voted for me and our party and I must say this is a very new development and a very hopeful one.Are you confident that you and your party will be able to sustain this character of caste-free politics in Madhes?
I am very glad that Madhesi voters have given new hope and multi-dimensional messages.
Our victory shows that if you are honest, you can emerge victorious even if you are from weak economic background and a minority group.Candidates and parties need a lot of money to spend during election campaign.
How did you manage the campaign fund?
Of course, parties and candidates need minimum amount of money to contest elections.
Traditional forces used to spend unfair amount of money during the election campaign.
This time the people took money from them, but opted for the right candidates and parties.What was the biggest rallying point of your party that clicked with the voters?
The first and foremost thing was that people wanted change because they were quite tired of the old way of politics and old promises that mostly went unfulfilled.
The votes that we have received are votes for change, hope and caste-free politics.
The agenda we put forth during the campaign was service delivery.
We wanted to address the issue of unemployment and that clicked with the voters.What do you think are the major mistakes the JSP-N and LSP-N made in Madhes politics?
They almost forgot the people.
They forgot the fundamental agenda on the basis of which they were elected.
They were busy managing their own cadres through portfolios in the government.
They were quite far from the public's concerns.
One example is farmers' protest.
We protested for long to draw the government's attention to farmers' problems.
The agriculture portfolio was under them, yet they did not bother about farmers.
They even refused to accept a memorandum from farmers.
That showed how far they were from the public's issue.How will you act differently from those leaders who once had heroic image, but soon they became unpopular in politics?
I will always be honest with people and I will work transparently so that they can judge what I have tried and how much I have delivered and what problems I have to encounter.What do you think are the mistakes that traditional forces made as a result of which their support base has shrunk?
There are a number of factors that led to the defeat of traditional forces, not just one.
Their corrupt behaviour and lack of vision are the main reasons behind their electoral loss.
I will try to fulfil people's aspirations for change.
I will try to address people's demands one by one.
I will have zero tolerance towards corruption.
We will establish some mechanisms to control it.
We will try our best to always remain in touch with people, grassroots basically, so that we can understand their need and deliver proper services to them.
We do not want to confine ourselves to our party or cadre base.
We will always try to reach out to the general people no matter what their political affiliation or faith or caste.What are your plans to remain attached to people?
THT In the last decade, we have always remained attached to people.
I will always try to connect myself with the public.
I went on a journey called Mato Yatra with the aim of collecting soil from all the villages.
The basic idea was to remain attached with the people and I will remain attached to the ground, grassroots, basically.
We found good publicsupport for our party.
My journey through the villages of Madhes created positive vibes among the public.
We will try to select our party leaders to various posts through elections.
All our lower committees elected their office bearers through conventions without any interference from higher committees or leaders.
This is the right way to win against favouritism and nepotism that are rife in political parties.
Madhes-centric forces have not held general conventions and if any party held a convention, it was mere ritual.
Our party is not that old, but we held our general convention and our executive committee was elected through that general convention and that is quite a democratic practice.Have you decided to join the NC-led coalition government?
We have had several rounds of talks with all the major political parties.
The government should be ready to pass the citizenship bill, ameliorate farmers woes, give us conducive environment to bring reforms in education and health sectors, and create employment.
We will lend support to those parties or coalition that fulfil our demands.
Even if you join a coalition government, you may not be able to deliver on your poll pledges.
What do you do in that case.
What I think is important is to give a message to the public that I have honestly tried to address people's concerns.
Even if I achieve partial success, people will still be happy because they have given me a chance to progress in the right direction.
For example, in the education sector, even if I can establish one or two schools in my own constituency, people will get a clear message.
Similarly for employment, even if I can establish two or three industries that can generate employment even for five hundred people, they will still give me credit for it.
And for health sector also, if I can only regulate the existing health facilities to ensure quality services, people will still be happy.
I am hopeful that people will understand the issue and they will see me as moving in the right direction.How hopeful are you of your party's success in the future?
In this election, we won only six seats in the House of Representatives (one FPTP and five PR seats) but in the future we will certainly expand our support base and win more seats.How do you look at the rise of Rastriya Swatantra Party and Rastriya Prajatantra Party that want the current model of federalism diluted?
Federalism is related to empowerment of Madhesis and marginalised communities that faced discrimination for long.The results of federalism and social inclusion in the constitution are that a Madhesi became the president of the country and there are relatively good number of Madhesi ministers in the Cabinet.
Representation of marginalised communities has increased in other state organs as well.
Without federalism and social inclusion, empowerment of Madhesis and other marginalised communities would not be possible.
People' frustration with traditional forces has given rise to regressive forces.
RSP cadres and leaders are very young people whose main focus is good governance.
They do not have clear idea about federalism and social inclusion.
Their preaching about federalism is worrisome for disadvantaged and marginalised communities, but if they want to reverse federalism, they are wrong.
Reversing federalism is not easy because the government's development efforts will be affected.JSP-N and LSP-N may be envious of your party's victory.
Do you think your party could work in tandem with them in the House of Representatives?
Whatever they may think about me and my party, I will always be ready to collaborate with them and we have already talked to them about collaboration.You were among high earning professionals, what brought you into politics?
I saw people's problems unaddressed for long.
The issues they raised went unaddressed for a long time.
Even after they voted for these Madhes-centric parties hugely, their problems remained unaddressed and that led me to believe there should be some good people to address people's problems and resolve the leadership crisis.
I was quite moved by their desire to see change.
A version of this article appears in the print on December 13, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
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This article first appeared/also appeared in https://thehimalayantimes.com
Nepal
amp;#039;Janmat Party amp;#039;s victory reflects people amp;#039;s desire for change amp;#039;
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