KATHMANDU, JANUARY 24 Kathmandu Constituency-1 is expected to see one of the most interesting clashes between former colleagues from the same party. Ranju Darshana and Rabindra Mishra are former Bibeksheel Sajha Party cadres. Mishra, now a senior vice-chair of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), which advocates for the Hindu state and monarchy, and Darshana, now a leader of the Rastriya Swatantrata Party, are running in Kathmandu Constituency 1. Ranju has dropped out of the Rastriya Swatantra Party's (RSP) proportional list to run as a first-past-the-post candidate. Darshana ran for mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City in the 2017 local elections. She garnered 23,439 votes in that election. Darshana, who was 21 years old at the time, stunned the entire country by not only being the youngest candidate, but also receiving the third-highest number of votes in the mayoral race. Having remained neutral following the splits and unifications of the Bibeksheel and Sajha Parties, Darshana along with several other Bibeksheel Sajha Party leaders joined the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) on November 30, last year. She had accused Mishra of hypocrisy in 2021 when she handed over her resignation letter to Rabindra Mishra, the then chair of the Bibeksheel Sajha Party. Mishra, the founding chairperson of the Bibeksheel Sajha Party, resigned after the party performed poorly in the 2022 elections. Mishra joined the RPP the same year he resigned and has been a strong supporter and advocate for the restoration of monarchy and the Hindu state. Interestingly, Rabindra Mishra of the RPP and Darshana of the RSP will face off in the House of Representatives (HoR) election on March 5, Kathmandu Constituency 1. From the same constituency, Prabal Thapa of the Nepali Congress and Mohan Raj Regmi of the CPN-UML are also running. Mishra ran from this constituency in the previous two parliamentary elections. He lost both elections to Prakash Man Singh of the Nepali Congress. However, he ran for a different party in both elections. Mishra, who advocates for alternative politics, ran as a candidate for the Bibeksheel Sajha Party in the 2017 election. At the time, Mishra received 10,118 votes, while Singh received 10,936. In the 2022 elections, he not only changed his party but also narrowed the margin of votes. Mishra, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) candidate, received 7,018 votes, while Singh of the Nepali Congress won with 7,143 votes. The difference in votes between these two candidates was just 125. Kathmandu Constituency No 1 includes Kathmandu Metropolitan City's Wards 10, 11, 29, and 31. Who will win the election in this constituency with 48,489 voters? We will need to wait until March 5. However, election excitement has grown in this constituency. With Mishra entering the election fray for the third time, the Nepali Congress has introduced a fresh face. The faces of the CPN-UML, CPN, and RSP are all new. In the previous election, when Nepali Congress candidate Singh won, RSP candidate Pukar Bam received 4,115 votes. The party was pleased with the number of votes it received soon after its formation. CPN-UML and NCP are regarded as weak in this area. While Mishra is competing in the Nepali Congress's realm of influence, Darshana's entry from the RSP is also being analysed as making him somewhat uneasy to win. It appears that Regmi will need to put in a lot of effort to win because CPN-UML is the party with the fourth-highest number of votes, as per the 2022 election results. Menuka Bhandari is the NCP's candidate in this area. In this area, the CPN-UML is stronger than the NCP.