BARA, APRIL 15
Political parties are struggling to select their candidates for the local elections in Bara's Nijgadh Municipality.
In case of CPN-UML, its local town committee was scheduled to pick its candidates for the post of ward chairpersons and members for the municipality today. The candidates thus recommended by the party's local level are, however, subject to approval by the party district committee, which is entitled to finalise the names. According to the party town committee chair Surat Puri, there are many aspirants for the mayoral ticket in the local level and recommending the names of mayor and deputy mayor will follow once the recommendation of ward chairpersons and members is over.
Apart from Puri, Ek Bahadur Shrestha, Ambika Chaulagain, Sudarshan Koirala and Dil Bahadur Lama are the major contenders for the mayoral ticket in the local level.
In Nepali Congress, selection of the candidates for the posts of ward chairpersons, mayor and deputy mayor has begun too. According to NC Nijgadh chair Nawaraj Timilsina; Suresh Khanal, Pemasiddhi Lama and Mahesi Kunwar are the recommended names for the mayoral post here. Of 13 wards, 9 are said to have expressed their support for Khanal's repeat as the mayor candidate.
"There're also internal discussions regarding alliance with other parties," Timalsina said.
Save for NC, other constituents of the ruling coalition - CPN-MC, Janata Samajbadi Party and CPN (Unified Socialists) - are said to have agreed to face the poll as a unified front in the municipality. As Congress was seen to be apathetic to hold discussion on the modality of the electoral alliance of the ruling coalition, the three parties have started devising their own strategy for the polls. "Though we are in talks with NC informally, there is no formal talks regarding the prospect of electoral alliance among the ruling coalition partners," said local Maoist leader Rabi Dangal.
A version of this article appears in the print on April 16, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
