The election for choosing members of the Parliament is taking place as scheduled, bringing an end to the uncertainties that loomed on the political horizon for almost four months of its announcement. All the parties, old and new, have already taken a dip into the election pool with the nomination of the candidates, their finalization, and going on a door-to-door campaign even without a manifesto. Surprisingly, the focus now should have been on the manifestoes of the parties participating in the election. Instead, prime ministerial candidates announced by some major political parties, such as the Nepali Congress (NC), the Unified Marxist- Leninist (UML), and the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) have occupied centre stage. Whilst the newly-rejuvenated NC, after holding the Special General Convention, has proposed Gagan Thapa, the newly-elected young and energetic president as the prime ministerial candidate, the UML has projected its old political horse, K P Oli, the former prime minister as well as its recently-elected president by a huge margin. The RSP has, in turn, proposed Balen Shah, the former mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, who has an incredible following among the youth. This is, however, not a new political phenomenon. The NC in the 1999 election had proposed the charismatic Krishna Prasad Bhattarai for prime minister because of his clean image, honesty, and integrity. Bhattarai responded with a majority win in that election. It is not only the prime ministerial figures but the epicentre of the present election, such as Jhapa-5 where Oli and Balen locking their political horns, that have sent the voters into a frenzy. An earlier event of Madan Bhandari, the UML leader who contested against the then Prime Minister, Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, in the 1990 election from Baneswore constituency, appears to be unravelling again. Bhandari won belying the general feeling that Bhattarai would emerge victorious. Whether Balen can recreate a similar scene will be clear after the declaration of the election result. Even though the manifesto has been eclipsed by the Jhapa-5 constituency, it has to be addressed by the political parties sooner or later. In fact, the work has already started behind the curtains with the committees formed under Thapa in the NC and Oli in UML. The RSP has formed a committee under Vice President Dr. Swarnim Wagley, the former Vice-Chairman of the National Planning Commission. He also has the experience of drafting the manifesto of the NC before defecting to the RSP. The Tamworth Manifesto was the first of its kind released in Britain when Sir Robert Peel became the prime minister in 1834, when Nepal was struck by a killer earthquake. The Communist Manifesto written by Karl Marx with the assistance of Frederich Engels in 1848 is another memorable one. Junga Bahadur was then ruling in Nepal. Though he promulgated the national Act known as the Muluki Ain, he did not release any political manifesto as such. In Nepal, the first political party manifesto was drafted by B P Koirala following which the NC obtained a two-thirds landslide victory. Since then, manifestoes have been prepared by the political parties invariably, especially after the general elections held in the post-1990 democratic era. But those who actually read the manifestoes are very few, and people get to know about the content through the media. There are several factors why this happens, but one notable one is the rather long manifesto. Lessons can be learnt from Latvia which limits it to just 4,000 words. A manifesto should have a vision, plan, and programme. A vision is what one wants to be said. Abdul Kalam, a nuclear scientist who prepared the 2020 vision for India, had outlined the vision as 'To be a developed country by 2020'. In fact, he had come across this statement while interviewing a girl student in the course of knowing people's perception about the vision around the country. The vision of the 16th National Plan (2024-2028) of Nepal has been 'Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepali'. For this, the plan is to upgrade Nepal from a least developed country to a developing one by 2026 and to a middle income country by 2030. But the present manifesto has to adjust to the twin demands of the Gen Z, which are the eradication of corruption and establishment of good governance. It should thus form the spine of the manifesto of the political parties. Any departure from this fact would represent an utter disregard for the deaths of the 76 Nepalis in the Gen Z movement. Moreover, it is being drafted at a time when many buildings, some of them iconic like the Supreme Court and historic like the Singha Durbar, have been burnt to ashes. Some buildings have been demolished in Hetauda for the extension of the road. Though such events are very painful, it has also provided an opportunity to recreate the much-needed identity following the features of traditional buildings and landscape. But the country has missed this opportunity in the post-earthquake reconstruction, for example in Barpak, the epicentre where the new buildings have not been able to reflect the spirit of the place. Hetauda in particular can benefit from the plantation of the Cycas plant, locally known as Kalbal, which is available in its peripheral area and thereby earn an epithet of a Cycas city in the same manner as San Francisco is known as the city of flowers. The forthcoming manifesto of the political parties has thus to be unlike its predecessors as the country is standing in an unusual political crossroad following the Gen Z movement. It has been exclusively a Nepali political phenomenon that is now spreading around the globe. The manifestos should thus focus on this living reality.