HETAUDA, OCTOBER 19
With the November 20 polls for House of Representatives and Province Assembly just a month away, Makawanpur Constituency-1 has come into the limelight.
This constituency has become the talk of the town as Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal's Chair Kamal Thapa has filed his nomination for the seventh time from Makawanpur-1 for member of HoR. Thapa is contesting the polls using CPN-UML's election symbol sun.
Thapa's longtime party colleague Dipak Bahadur Singh of Rastriya Prajatantra Party has also filed his nomination from the same constituency.
Prior to the restoration of democracy, Thapa was the candidate from Makawanpur. In 1981, Thapa lost the polls while he won the election five years later.
In the first election after the restoration of democracy, Thapa was defeated. In the mid-term poll of 1991, Thapa had won the election. Five years later in 1996, Thapa was defeated by the UML candidate.
In the first Constituent Assembly election, Thapa was reduced to the third position. Dipak Bahadur Singh had lost the mayoral election of Hetauda sub-metropolis in the last local polls. Singh, who had supported Thapa for four decades, has emerged as Thapa's rival. Nepali Congress' Co-Joint Secretary Mahalaxmi Dina Upadhyay has also registered her candidacy from Makawanpur-1. Dina had become the nearest rival of Birodh Khatiwada, who had won the parliamentary polls after the restoration of democracy. In the two Constituent Assembly polls, Dina was selected member of the legislature from the proportional representation system.
Dina is the common candidate of the ruling coalition.
As per the votes earned by parties in the last local polls, coalition candidate Dina is ahead of Thapa despite UML's backing.
CPN-UML had garnered 38,056 votes while Nepali Congress had earned 33,697 votes. Likewise, CPN-Maoist Centre had received 16,542 votes and the CPN (Unified Socialist) had managed to get 3,277 votes. Rastriya Prajatantra Party had received 4,820 votes.
Party votes in the last local polls lead us to believe that Thapa is very unlikely to win the polls. But, it would be too early to make any prediction as various factors such as candidates' charisma, their strategy and lasthour wave could play a role in making a candidate winner or loser.
A version of this article appears in the print on October 20, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
