KATHMANDU, MARCH 8
Harkaraj Rai of the Shram Sanskriti Party has won the House of Representatives seat from Sunsari Constituency-1, defeating the Rastriya Swatantra Party's Goma Tamang in one of the few constituencies where the RSP wave was held back on March 5.
According to Election Officer Divyaraj Ghimire, Rai secured 35,741 votes against Tamang's 27,249 - a margin of 8,492. Tikaram Limbu of the CPN-UML finished third with 6,463 votes, 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 Rastriya Prajatantra Party with 1,419.
Rai, 43, is a former Mayor of Dharan, a background that appears to have given him the local credibility to withstand the national RSP surge that swept most constituencies across the country.
The constituency, which covers 27 wards including Dharan Sub-metropolitan City, Barahakshetra and Ramdhuni, had 150,393 registered voters. Of these, 87,865 cast their ballots. The contest drew 26 candidates from 19 parties and seven independents.