Biratnagar, December 9

At a time when victory has become rare for the Nepali Congress in Morang, Minendra Rijals’s victory has become a face saving for the party.

Before elections, Morang was considered as a district with stronghold of NC. However, sending a shock wave through NC’s leadership, the left alliance clinched victory in five constituencies out of the six in the district.

Left alliance candidates won parliamentary polls in Constituency No 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6 while Minendra Rijal from NC won in Constituency No 2 in Morang. Bhanubhakta Dhakal from UML won the election with 42,413 votes in Constituency No 3 while his closest rival NC’s Sunil Sharma received 40,506 votes. In Constituency No 6, Lal Babu Pandit from the left alliance won the election with a margin of 675 votes against his closest rival NC’s Shekhar Koirala. Pandit received 33,942 votes and Koirala got 33266 votes.

In Constituency No 4 also left alliance candidate Aman Lal Modi won the election with 33,529 votes while his closest rival Mahesh Acharya received 26,800 votes. The NC had never lost elections in this constituency in the last 22 years. Similarly, Ghanashyam Khatiwada from UML won the election with 37,524 votes in Constituency No 1 while his closest rival Dig Bahadur Limbu received 31,436 votes. Shiva Kumar Mandal from the left alliance won the election in Constituency No 5 with 22,945 votes while his closest rival Amrit Aryal received 19,153 votes.

Minendra Rijal from NC won the election in Constituency No 2. According to the Election Commission, Rijal won the election with 35,819 votes while his closest rival UML’s Rishikesh Pokhrel received 1,805 votes less than Rijal.