KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 14 As the seasonal summer progresses in Madhes, candidates are sweating. The election for the House of Representatives takes place in 18 days. Election fever is spreading even further. Madhes, like Jhapa-5, is emerging as the 'epicentre' of this election. Several heavyweight candidates are competing in Madhes Province, which has sparked interest. Sarlahi-4 is making headlines due to the fact that Nepali Congress President Gagan Thapa is in the fray and has challenged Amresh Kumar Singh, the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) home constituency. Bimalendra Nidhi, the former vice president of the Nepali Congress, and Juli Kumari Mahato, the leader of the CPNUML and a former minister, are facing off against RSP leader Manish Jha in Dhanusha-3. In Sarlahi-2, there is a competition between Rastriya Mukti Party President Rajendra Mahato and the Nepali Communist Party leader Mahindra Ray Yadav. In Dhanusha-4, outgoing Nepali Congress Joint General Secretary and former minister Mahendra Yadav is challenging CPN-ML Deputy General Secretary Raghubir Mahaseth. In Saptari-2, Janamat Party President Dr CK Raut is being challenged by Satish Singh of the Swabhibhan Party, who has parted ways with him, and Umesh Yadav of the Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal. Although Madhes elections are always interesting in its 32 direct electoral constituencies in its eight districts, five constituencies are expected to be the battleground for heavyweight candidates and the election's epicentre. SARLAHI-4 Gagan Thapa, the newly elected President of the Nepali Congress, has chosen Sarlahi-4 in Madhes over Kathmandu-4, where he has previously run for office. Thapa has challenged his former colleague, Dr Amresh Kumar Singh, in his home constituency. Singh, who was elected as an independent candidate in the previous election, is running from the RSP. Singh filed an independent candidacy for the 2022 House of Representatives elections after being denied a ticket by the Nepali Congress. At the time, he was elected to the House of Representatives with 20,017 votes. His closest competitor, Nepali Congress candidate Nagendra Kumar, received 18,253 votes. He received support from the then-CPN (Maoist) and CPN (Unified Socialist). In that election, RSP candidate Dhiraj Thakur received only 318 votes. However, with Amresh representing RSP, it is expected that the party will have a strong presence this time and will likely win the election. However, some analysts believe Gagan will easily win because the Nepali Congress has a strong party organisation in Sarlahi-4. SARLAHI-2 Mahindra Ray Yadav of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) and Rajendra Mahato of the Rashtriya Mukti Party (RMP) have both filed for the Sarlahi Constituency-2 seat. These two leaders have had a long-standing political rivalry. This is the third election in which both leaders will compete against one another. Mahindra had won both of the previous two competitions. Mahindra defeated Rajendra in the 2022 elections, running under the CPN (Maoist) election symbol at the time. Rajendra ran for election as a member of the Loktantrik Samajwadi Party-Nepal. Mahindra won by 23,529 votes, while Rajendra lost by 21,518 votes. Dr Saroj Kumar of the Nepali Congress and Rabin Mahato of the RSP are also running in this constituency. DHANUSHA-3 Former Nepali Congress Vice President Bimalendra Nidhi, CPN-UML leader and former minister Juli Kumari Mahato, and RSP spokesperson Manish Jha are vying from Dhanusha Constituency-3. In the previous election, Nidhi was elected to the House of Representatives using proportional quotas. Nidhi was defeated by Rajendra Mahato, the then-RJP-N candidate from this constituency, in the 2017 election. Juli Kumari Mahato, the UML candidate, defeated Anil Kumar Jha, the Loktantrik Samajwadi Party-Nepal candidate, in the 2022 election. However, in this election, in an area where both the Nepali Congress and the UML have a strong presence, the RSP is also competing against Nidhi and Juli. There are signs that the RSP and Balen's nationwide wave will have an impact on Madhes districts as well. As a result, it appears that the Nepali Congress, the CPN-UML, and the RSP will face off in Dhanusha-3. DHANUSHA-4 Dhanusha-4 is another constituency where heavyweights will face Madhesi heavyweight leaders. In this constituency, CPN-UML Deputy General Secretary Raghubir Mahaseth is facing off against outgoing Nepali Congress Joint General Secretary Mahendra Yadav. Mahaseth defeated Yadav in the 2022 elections, gaining a seat in the House of Representatives. Mahaseth won by just 124 votes. Mahaseth garnered 32,236 votes, while Mahendra received 32,112 votes. Mahendra went to court after he was narrowly defeated. However, the court ruled against him. This time around, the main contest is expected to be between these two candidates. Dhanusha-4 is considered a stronghold for both the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML. Sanjay Kumar Mahato of the Nepali Communist Party and Raj Kishor Mahato of the RSP are running in this constituency. SAPTARI-2 Saptari Constituency-2 was in the spotlight during the 2022 elections due to the contest between Janamat Party Chairman Dr CK Raut and JSP-N Chair Upendra Yadav. In that election, CK defeated Upendra by a large margin. Upendra received 16,979 votes, whereas Raut received 35,042. This time, CK Raut has run for the same constituency, while Upendra has dropped out and moved to Saptari-3. Even without Upendra, it is being determined that CK is uncomfortable at this time. Due to the fact that Umesh Yadav of JSP-N, a former minister himself, is running against him in this constituency, and former Madhes Chief Minister Satish Singh, who was with him before, left the party and challenged him. Singh is now running as a Swabhiman Party candidate. Dr Sharad Singh Yadav previously worked for the Janamat Party, which is led by Dr CK Raut. He was the party's spokesperson as well. However, he recently parted ways with Raut and is in the fray in Sapatari Constituency-2. 'I left Janamat due to increasing nepotism and favouritism in the party and considering the need of the hour,' he told THT. 'Raut considers himself superior to all and wishes to be believed and respected.'