KATHMANDU, MARCH 8 The Shram Sanskriti Party has won three direct seats in the House of Representatives election, establishing itself as one of the surprise stories of the March 5 polls in a contest otherwise dominated by the Rastriya Swatantra Party's historic sweep. All three victories came from Nepal's eastern hill and Tarai districts, suggesting the party has built a concentrated but solid base in the region. The party's historic first win came from Khotang, where General Secretary Aren Rai secured 16,612 votes, defeating CPN-UML's Dev Bikram Rai with 12,714 votes - a margin of 3,898. Birkaji Rai of the Nepali Congress received 11,957 votes, Hari Roka of the Nepali Communist Party 9,443, Rudra Giri of the RSP 5,704 and Miresh Rai of the Rastriya Parivartan Party 947. Out of 147,120 registered voters, 62,566 ballots were cast, of which 3,928 were declared invalid. The second win came from Sunsari Constituency-1, where Harkaraj Rai - a former Mayor of Dharan - held off the RSP wave that swept most of the country, winning with 35,741 votes against RSP candidate Goma Tamang's 27,249, a margin of 8,492. Tikaram Limbu of the CPN-UML finished third with 6,463, followed by Surya Bahadur Bhattarai of the Nepali Communist Party with 6,185, Sujendra Tamang of the Nepali Congress with 3,970 and Uddhav Shrestha of the RPP with 1,419. The constituency covers 27 wards including Dharan Sub-metropolitan City, Barahakshetra and Ramdhuni, with 87,865 votes cast from 150,393 registered voters. The third seat was secured in Bhojpur, where Dhruvaraj Rai won with 16,663 votes. CPN-UML's Sherdhhan Rai finished second with 14,750, followed by Nepali Congress candidate Balkrishna Thapa with 8,670, RSP's Ramesh Ojha with 6,602 and Nepali Communist Party's Ajambar Rai Kangmang with 5,728. Voter turnout in Bhojpur stood at 46.17 per cent of the district's 125,766 registered voters, with 58,167 votes counted across 161 polling centres.