KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 21

If early lead in parliamentary seats is any indication, chances of the Nepali Congress emerging as the largest party in the Parliament are high as the party was leading in 37 parliamentary first-past-thepost seats by 8:00pm today.

The main opposition, CPN- UML, was ahead in 25 seats and doing much better than the two ruling coalition partners - CPN-Maoist Centre and CPN (Unified Socialist), who were leading in six seats each. Recently-formed Rastriya Swatantra Party led by Rabi Lamichhane was leading in eight constituencies, Janata Samajbadi Party in three, and others in nine.

Some of the top contenders from major parties who were leading include NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba in his home constituency Dadeldhura, CPN-UML Chair KP Sharma Oli in Jhapa-5, and NC's Gagan Kumar Thapa in Kathmandu-4.

Top leaders who were trailing include UML's Ishwar Pokharel, who was behind NC's Pradip Paudel by more than 300 votes in Kathmandu-5, and Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal Chair Upendra Yadav, who was trailing Janamat Party Chair CK Raut in Saptari-2 by more than 1,800 votes.

Meanwhile, the NC became the first party to win a parliamentary seat in this election when Yogesh Gauchan Thakali defeated his nearest rival, CPN-UML candidate Prem Prasad Tulachan in Mustang. Thakali secured 3,992 votes against Tulachan's 3,078 votes.

The NC won a few provincial assembly seats as well.

Namdu Gurung, who contested from Mustang (1) secured 1,048 votes against his nearest rival Indradhara Bista, who got 793 votes. Bikal Sherchan won from Mustang (2). He defeated UML's Chandra Mohan Gauchan. Sherchan got 2,723 votes against Gauchan's 2,565.

Nepali Congress candidate Munindra Jung Gurung won a Gandaki PA seat from Manang (1), securing 1,255 votes. Independent candidate Rajeev Gurung won Gandaki PA election from Manang (2). Rajeev was elected unopposed.

Although Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya had said the EC would complete counting of all ballot papers within eight days, almost half of the 165 parliamentary FPTP constituencies had not started counting by 8:00pm today.

Assistant Spokesperson for the EC Surya Prasad Aryal said counting in many places could not start as government officials brought ballot boxes from remote places to headquarters only today, whereas in some places, political parties had failed to agree on starting the counting, as some parties had sought repolling accusing rival parties of rigging the election.

A version of this article appears in the print on November 22, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.