KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 9 With 'heavyweight' leaders at odds, Kathmandu-5 has emerged as the most popular of the 15 constituencies in the Kathmandu valley. The urban 'elite' reside in Kathmandu-5, which runs north-south from the ancient city of Tokha to the Narayanhiti area. High-ranking officials from security agencies and the civil service also live here. They are often decision-makers in this constituency. Tokha has its own sociocultural value. It is regarded as a city of Lichchhavi splendour as well. Due to the presence of powerful candidates from the CPNUML, Nepali Congress, and Rastriya Prajatantra (RPP) Party, this election contest has become more fascinating and captivating. In addition to Ishwar Pokharel, Pradeep Paudel, and Kamal Thapa, this constituency has 25 candidates. Of them, 20 are party candidates. Only five are independents. Senior CPN-UML leader Ishwar Pokharel is campaigning in this constituency to avenge his previous defeat. Nepali Congress General Secretary Pradeep Paudel, who defeated Pokharel in the 2022 elections, is running again. In the 2022 election, Paudel won this constituency with 15,269 votes, while CPN-UML leader Ishwor Pokharel received 10,190. Pranaya Shamsher Rana of the RSP finished third, with 5,477 votes. Although the party has a sizable local following, Ishwor Pokharel, the CPN-UML candidate, has had to put in a lot of effort to gain its support. He had lost three times and won twice in previous electoral contests. Paudel, who won by a large margin in the previous election, expects similar results this time around. Meanwhile, Paudel appears to understand that voters believe he can do the job, despite the fact that he has built a controversy-free reputation as minister of health and population. Kamal Thapa, a senior leader of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and a politician since the Panchayat era, is also running in this race. Sasmit Pokharel is the candidate put forth by the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP). Pokharel, an active member of the Bibeksheel Sajha Party, has previously run in this constituency. He ran from Kathmandu-5 (1) in the 2022 Provincial Assembly elections. He had secured the fifth highest votes. Pokharel had received 1052 votes when he ran as an independent candidate with lantern as his election symbol. Pranaya Shamsher Rana, the RSP's candidate from Kathmandu-5 in the 2022 election, received 5,477 votes. Sasmit Pokharel believes it will be easy to win this time because the RSP won first place in Kathmandu-5 in the proportional representation category in the previous election with 11,647 votes. Sasmit Pokharel previously worked in the secretariat of former Kathmandu Metropolitan City Mayor Balen Shah. He had also worked in the secretariat of Biraj Bhakta Shrestha, the lawmaker representing Kathmandu-8. Even though he ran as an independent candidate in the provincial assembly elections, he received respectable votes, so he appears confident that the latest 'wave' of support for the RSP will hand him a victory this time. Sasmit believes that the Gen Z uprising of September 8 and 9 last year and the political wave it sparked changed the psychology of ordinary people, particularly urban voters. He believes that if he can capitalise on the growing alienation from the old parties, the results will be in his favour. Kalpana Sharma is the candidate put forth by the Nepali Communist Party (NCP) in this constituency. Her political background and the peace process have made her a prominent figure in this electoral constituency. The NCP does, however, have a relatively thin support base in this region. In the 2017 and 2022 elections, the thenCPN (Maoist Centre) did not field any candidates. The Nepali Congress and the CPNUML formed an alliance in 2017 for the 2022 elections. The CPN (Maoist Centre) garnered 1,224 votes in the 2022 elections under proportional representation, while the CPN (Unified Socialists) secured 606 votes. In addition to these contenders, the Gatisheel Loktantrik Party has put forward artist Nisha Adhikari, a well-known actress who has gained a reputation as a mountaineer and is running for office for the first time. She is currently campaigning to introduce issues such as community health, elderly care, and women's rights to the House. Shriram Gurung is the candidate for the newly formed party Ujyaalo Nepal Party, which is led by Kulman Ghising. Gurung, who has established himself as an economic policy researcher, ran for this constituency in the 2022 elections. Gurung, who ran with the camera symbol, had received 2,761 votes at the time. Kathmandu-5 is made up of four Kathmandu Metropolitan City wards (Wards 2, 3, 4, and 5). The CPN-UML won all four of these in the last election. The CPN-UML also won these wards in the 2017 election. This constituency also includes some wards of Tokha Municipality's (Wards 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7). The CPN-UML had won Wards 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7, as well as the mayoral post. The post of deputy mayor and only Ward 6 were won by the Nepali Congress.