KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 10
Kathmandu Constituency No 1, a core area of Nepali Congress, also the home of Prakash Man Singh, could face severe competition this time.
Singh, who has won the constituency in the last three elections, might feel comfortable with the party's major rival Nepal Communist Party-UML candidate Kiran Poudel if we look at the result of the 2017 election, when Singh won by a large margin of over 5,000 votes even when Poudel was the common candidate of the left alliance. This time the left alliance is split. Moreover, the NCP-MC, which supported Poudel last time is supporting Singh this election. But, local level election in May showed that almost equal number of people voted for CPN-UML ward chairs in comparison to NC's ward chairs.
Singh will however face Rabindra Mishra of the pro-monarchy Rastriya Prajatantra Party, who had lost the 2017 election by a slight margin of 818 votes. Mishra, however, had filed his candidacy from Bibeksheel Sajha Party in 2017. The party had garnered support from educated people of the capital, but in the last five years he has changed his political ideology and is advocating reinstatement of monarchy in some form. Mishra, had left his career in journalism in the BBC to enter politics. Suresh Ghimire, 32, of Shantinagar, who voted for Mishra in 2017, expressed dissatisfaction with Mishra's changed political ideology, though he is still in the mood to vote him this time as well. "We deserve a person like Mishra, who fights election with the pure motive of cleaning dirty politics and does not think like other political leaders do."
However, Mishra's vote might be divided by another influential candidate Ramesh Kharel, who had earned fame as an honest and fearless cop fighting corruption and maintaining peace and security when he served Nepal Police. Kharel, who retired as DIG in 2018 has been in politics ever since.
"This time we are thinking of voting for Kharel, who is fearless and we have hope in him rather than older faces who make promises and forget us after election," Rajesh Dhakal a local of Battisputali area told THT.
Kathmandu Constituency 1 is one of the smallest constituencies in terms of land area, but has a large population. Kathmandu Metropolitan City's wards 10, 11, 29 and 31 fall under this constituency with areas such as Shantinagar, Minbhawan, Baneshwor, Old Baneshwor, Battisputali, Putalisadak, Babarmahal, Thapathali, Tripureshwor and some core Newar community areas such as Bhotebahal.
A version of this article appears in the print on November 11, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
