Sunsari, November 8

Election fever has gripped Dharan as the date for the by-election for the post of mayor in the sub-metropolis approaches. Tara Subba from the erstwhile CPN-UML was elected to the post in the last local election. A kidney patient, Subba died during the course of treatment last year.

As the election date nears, major political parties — the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) and Nepali Congress — have started their door-to-door campaigning.

While the ruling party started its campaign some three days ago, the main opposition has been campaigning for two weeks already. All the candidates in the fray have raised development and good governance as their major agenda.

Nepali Congress candidate Tilak Rai said his candidacy was for development of Dharan. “Though the communist party had frequently won the elections from here, they never took development projects seriously and number of development projects have been left in the lurch. My victory will end the practice of neglecting development work,” he said.

NCP candidate Prakash Rai said he would raise the agenda of the previous election as the main agenda this time as well. “NCP’s former leadership had done a lot for the development of Dharan. My target is to make this city well-managed and a centre of tourism, education and health.”

Socialist Party has fielded Gajendra Ishbo for the post. The party has also made development and good governance as its main agenda. Federal Limbuwan Forum has fielded Amar Ijam for the post, while Rajan Kumar Shrestha is in fray from Sajha Party.

Late leader Subba had bagged the mayor’s post by securing 20,975 votes representing the then CPN-UML, against 16,102 votes received by NC’s Tilak Rai. CPN-MC’s Aindra Bikram Begha had secured 11,180 votes. Back then the CPN-MC had formed an alliance with then Federal Socialist Party.

Speculations are rife that the NCP will easily win this election following the unity between the CPN-UML and CPN-MC. NC town secretary Shyam Pokharel, however, argued his party would win the election this time as the communist party had failed to deliver. As per data of the Election Commission Sunsari, some 16,000 more voters have been added by the end of last fiscal.