Dadeldhura, March 27:

At a time when candidates are trying hard to win hearts and minds, the only independent candidate from Dadeldhura district, Karan Singh Rawal, is frequenting police posts and army barracks. Reason: His election symbol. Soldier is his election symbol. Showing this symbol, he goes to the barracks and pleads security personnel to vote for him.

“Please vote for me. It will be a great shame for you if I lose.”

Army and police personnel send him back with promises to vote for him. Rawal said he has visited district headquarters Amargadhi and Alital, Jogbudha, Tatopani and other places. “All security personnel have promised that they will vote for me,” he said.

District Superintendent of Police of Dadeldhura Lokendra Bahadur Malla said Rawal’s urging for votes is meaningless since security personnel can only vote for those candidates who are contesting under the proportionate representative system of polls. “He had come to ask for votes, but we suggested him to go to the villagers instead of wasting time here,” Malla said adding that the candidate is unclear about election procedure.

In 2056 BS also, Rawal had contested the election as an independent candidate with umbrella as the election symbol. His is a one-man campaign. With pamphlets and posters in his pocket, goes places for campaigning and pastes them on the walls. Asked whether pasting posters is against the poll code, he said he did not know a thing about that code.