Defection rife among disgruntled party leaders

Rautahat, September 2

The trend of party leaders and cadres joining other parties in a bid to secure tickets to compete in the upcoming civic polls has become rampant in Rautahat.

Some of the influential leaders of major parties, including Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal, Federal Socialist Forum, among others, have already quit their parties to join new ones to secure tickets for the local polls.

Since there are too many aspirants in almost all the parties, leaders are having a tough time selecting candidates for

the polls.

Some of the aspirant candidates are conducting pressure programmes to secure party tickets while others are quitting the party and joining new ones to secure tickets.

CPN-UML leader Devaki Nepal after failing to get the party ticket for the deputy mayoral post of Chandrapur Municipality joined the CPN-Maoist Centre and bagged the ticket. Nepal was a very loyal to her party. She, however, quit the party as she was denied the ticket.

Rameswor Ray Yadav of the Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal quit the party and joined Federal Socialist Forum on condition that he would be given ticket to compete in Rajdevi Municipality.

RJP-N Rautahat District Committee presidium member Sekh Nurul Hoda quit the party and joined the CPN-Maoist Centre and secured the ticket to contest the civic polls. He is contesting for the ward chair in Gaur Municipality-9.

RJP-N central member Ram Kishor Mahato of Bhagawati Rural Municipality joined Federal Socialist Forum Nepal after he was denied the ticket by his party. He has secured the ticket for the post of rural municipality chair.

Social worker Bijay Kishor Jha said that the trend among disgruntled party leaders and cadres joining  new parties had become rampant due to party leaders’ greed for post and power. He also said many parties in the Tarai lacked ideology and could not free themselves from prejudice.

Jha further said that if such trend continued it would be difficult for the parties to retain loyal cadres.

Garuda’s social worker Rajeswor Pandey said big parties welcomed Madhesi party leaders and distributed tickets to them. “Since the deadline for filing nominations is on Wednesday, this trend will get continuity for a few more days,” said Pandey .