Birgunj, September 4 As the third round of civic polls approaches, the focus of political parties has been centred on Birgunj Metropolis of Province 2. Madhes-centric parties and other major parties have calculated they need to win the metropolis on their own to make a mark in the third phase of civic polls. Hence, all the parties’ strategies are focused on winning the upcoming election in the metropolis. All Madhes-based parties except Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal have almost finalised their candidates, while RJP-N is holding discussion on selecting its candidates. The political parties that have finalised candidates have launched their election publicity campaigns. Nepali Congress, which claims Birgunj as its pocket area, has offered the mayoral ticket to Ajaya Kumar Dwibedi. The NC has also decided to offer the deputy mayoral candidate ticket to Shanti Karki. Dwibedi, the district president of NC, was the former deputy mayor in Birgunj. He was defeated in the last Constituent Assembly election from Constituency No 2 of Parsa. CPN-UML has almost finalised Basuruddin Ansari and Sofiya Acharya as its mayoral and deputy mayoral candidates in the metropolis. Ansari is the managing director of National Medical College. He was defeated by then Unified CPN-Maoist candidate in the past Constituent Assembly election from Constituency No 2. Ansari had entered the UML with the agreement that the party would offer the mayoral ticket to him. Similarly, CPN-Maoist Centre has also been preparing to offer the ticket for mayoral candidate to Rahbar Ansari in the metropolis. Ansari, who is the youngest candidate among the aspirants, is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Gandak Hospital, Birgunj. Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal has almost decided to offer the mayoral ticket to entrepreneur Bijaya Kumar Sarawagi in the metropolis. Sarawagi, who has spent three tenures as the central member of Federation Chamber of Commerce and Industry, entered the party some months ago. The party has set upon Pinky Yadav as deputy mayor. Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal is yet to reach a decision on the mayoral candidate due to dispute among aspirants. Former Birgunj Mayor Bimal Kumar Shreebastav and Rajesh Man Singh have claimed the post. Shreebastav was spokesperson of the Mahantha Thakur-led Tarai Madhes Democratic Party before party unification, while Singh was the central secretary of Sarat Singh Bhandari-led Rastriya Madhes Socialist Party. Meanwhile, Parsa Election Officer Hom Nath Parajuli said that phase-wise preparation for the third phase election was on. He said that voter education training programme was being carried out in different places in the district. There are 280,312 voters in one metropolis, including 14 local levels in Parsa.