Kathmandu, November 30

Aggressive campaigning by parliamentary candidates of the Nepali Congress and the left alliance in Kathmandu-4 has left voters there in a fix.

While NC candidate Gagan Thapa is a former health minister, left alliance candidate from the UML Rajan Bhattarai is a former lawmaker. Both the candidates are personally visiting voters in the constituency seeking votes.

Gagan Thapa, a popular youth leader, won the 2013 constitutional election from the same constituency with a vast margin of 13,308 votes against his nearest competitor from the UML. Thapa received 22,336 votes — 6,846 more votes than the combined votes of UML and CPN-Maoist Centre in the constituency.

Although CA election results indicate Thapa’s strong presence in the constituency, the results of local level elections show a completely different picture. NC lost in 10 of the 12 Wards in the constituency in the CA election. Kathmandu- 4 comprises eight Wards of Budhanilkantha Municipality (Wards 1,2,8,9,10,11,12 and 13) and four Wards of Kathmandu Metropolitan (Wards 1, 7,8 and 30).

The CPN-UML won in all Wards of Budhanilkantha Municipality in the civic polls. The UML mayoral candidate in Budhanilkantha Municipality won the election securing 4,319 more votes than his nearest rival from NC.

Thapa, who was spotted carrying out door-to-door campaign this morning, said voters concerns were different now. He said, “Voters have few complaints about development issues, thanks to the recently held local level elections, which have made locals hopeful of change through policies and laws that we pass from the Parliament. I will try my best to visit at least 80 per cent of households in the constituency personally.”

Similarly, left alliance candidate Bhattarai said it was his first campaigning experience and it was “exciting”. Bhattarai said, “Locals here complained that elected leaders never returned to their area after being elected. So there is frustration among the people. I am hopeful that with growing support for the left alliance across the country, we will clinch victory in this constituency also.”

Balaram Subedi, 54, who claimed to be a social activist, said, “Though I am not an NC cadre, I am supporting Thapa because of the decisions he took in favour of kidney patients when he was the health minister.”

Rhiman Rai, 36, a local of Kapan, said, “We need to change the leaders so that they  understand that they need to be accountable to voters once they win the election.” Rai, however, didn’t reveal whether he was speaking in favour of the UML candidate.

Bishnu Subedi, 46, of Budhanilkantha-3, said he was confused as both of the leaders visited his house seeking votes. “We don’t like to see highly capable candidates contest against each other. I have not yet decided who to vote for as I am still confused.”