RAJBIRAJ, AUGUST 20
Though not formally, most candidate hopefuls are declaring their candidacies at a personal level for the upcoming parliamentary and provincial assembly elections in Saptari. While some have declared their candidacy by meeting voters, others are announcing their decision to contest through social media.
In Saptari, people will be voting for a total of 12 seats - 4 parliamentary posts and eight provincial assembly seats. Till Saturday, over 46 people have declared their candidacy through popular social media platform Facebook. Those thus declaring their candidacies include sitting Parliamentary/PA members and those who had lost in the previous elections five years ago, to fresh faces.
Janamat Party chairperson CK Raut has said his candidacy for a parliament seat from Saptari Constituency-2 is in line with the party's official decision. It is important to note that Saptari Constituency-2 is the same constituency where Janata Samajbadi Party Chairperson Upendra Yadav had contested in the previous election and scooped victory.
This time, however, Yadav's candidacy from the constituency is said to be undecided.
While Yadav himself has said discussion are on about his candidacy, other candidates haven't officially declared their candidacies either.
The delay in the announcement of candidacies by parties is also being attributed to the conflicting claims of prospective candidates for election tickets.
While the NC's former district president Dinesh Kumar Yadav said there are discussion on whether the coalition will field a unanimous candidate or they will fight separately, Loktantrik Samajbadi Party also admitted there were too many prospective candidates seeking election ticket.
Similar is the case in Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal. Saptari has a total of 421,559 voters. According to District Election Office, final name list of voters will be published on September 16. The government has declared the date for parliamentary and provincial election for November 20.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 21, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
