RAJBIRAJ, NOVEMBER 17

On the final day of election campaign, Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal and Janamat Party separately staged their show of force in Saptari today, the last day of the election campaign for the parliamentary and provincial elections due on Sunday.

One day after the ruling coalition Saptari Constituency-2 parliamentary candidate Jaya Prakash Thakur of Lokatantrik Samajbadi Party held a show of force, today Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal and Janamat Party also staged their own shows of force separately, trying to influence voters. The constituency will see a major fight among coalition candidate Thakur, JSP-N national Chairperson Upendra Yadav, and JP's national chair CK Raut for one HoR seat.

From the local Raj stadium, thousands of supporters led by JSP-N chair Yadav rallied through the bazaar before returning to the stadium, where it converged into an election meeting.

JSP-N chair Yadav noted that there was still discrimination against the Madhes despite the nation witnessing a sea change. 'The Madhes accounts for 53 per cent of the total population of the country, but we are not proportionately represented in the Parliament. Besides, still the sons and daughters of Madhes are deprived of citizenship certificate, which is unfortunate,' he said, promising to improve the status and situation in the Madhes region if he is elected.

Separately, today itself, a rally of thousands of men and women led by CK Raut of Janamat Party marched around the city and reached Janaandolan chowk, where it concluded into an election meeting. Speaking on the occasion, Raut accused majority of the leaders of the Madhes of acceding to power corridors on the plank of martyrs' sacrifice, but disgracing the same martyrs.

'There is a jungle raj now and it has become imperative to set up people's rule. Similarly, we have a situation where hundreds of thousands of our brothers and sisters are in foreign land and every day we receive many dead bodies. We need to end this situation and it's possible through our votes.'

A version of this article appears in the print on November 18, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.