The UML had dominated Terhathum in previous elections
KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 21
In anticipation of the House of Representatives elections scheduled for March 5, the electoral landscape in the Terhathum district, which consists of just one constituency, the Terhathum Constituency-1, in the Koshi Province, is beginning to take shape. CPN-UML central secretary Bhanubhakta Dhakal is running for the CPN-UML. District-level leaders have run as candidates for other parties.
The UML had dominated the district in previous elections, with the Nepali Congress being the primary rival. Nonetheless, this time, as they have done across the nation, the CPN-UML and the Nepali Congress face competition from the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) and the Shram Sanskriti Party.
The Nepali Communist Party (NCP), RSP, and Shram Sanskriti parties have stepped up their election campaigns, while the CPN-UML and Nepali Congress are seeing a decline in their popularity.
This time, Bhanubhakta Dhakal has arrived in Tehrathum, his hometown, with the intention of re-entering politics. Dhakal, 64, was defeated by Dr Sunil Sharma of the Nepali Congress in Morang-3 by a significant margin of more than 22,000 votes in the 2022 election.
Dhakal was elected as a proportional representation MP in the second Constituent Assembly in 2013 and became a minister following the 2017 election from Morang-3.
For the first time, Dhakal, a resident of Chhathar Rural Municipality-6 in Okhre, is running for office directly from his home district. Dhakal is vying for votes, claiming that his candidature is for prosperity and development.
Rival parties, however, claim that Dhakal came to Tehrathum in search of a safe haven after losing the election and that he engaged in corruption in the procurement of medical supplies (Omni scandal) during his tenure as health minister during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Young leader Santosh Subba has been put forward by the Nepali Congress as its candidate to contest under the first-past-the-post category in Tehrathum. In the 2022 elections, Kishor Chandra Dulal of the CPN-UML from Tehrathum Provincial Assembly 'A' defeated Congress candidate Subba by a margin of 208 votes. Subba is running for the House of Representatives for the first time.
Randhwaj Kandangwa is the candidate put forward by the Nepali Communist Party for this election. According to the NCP, Dhakal has little chance, as he cannot refute the accusations made against him.
In Tehrathum, besides Dhakal, Kandangwa and Subba, E Surendra Karki of the RSP and Subindra Kumar Limbu of the Shram Sanskriti Party are also in the fray. Twelve candidates from 12 parties have filed nomination papers in the district.
Sita Gurung of the Nepali Congress, a Tehrathum candidate who ran in an alliance with the then-CPN (Maoist), won the 2022 election to the House of Representatives.
Vijay Subba of UML, her closest rival, received 18,631 votes, while she received 19,707. Bhawani Prasad Khapung of the UML defeated the Left Alliance in the 2017 election.