Surkhet, January 30:

A mayoral candidate has alleged Home Minister Kamal Thapa of putting pressure on him to withdraw his candidacy. Rabindranath Darlami, who had filed his candidacy for the post of mayor of Birendranagar Municipality, had later withdrawn his name. Darlami disclosed this at the press conference held here today. Darlami had been under the protection of the security personnel after filing of his candidacy.

He accused the DDC chairman and vice-chairman of putting pressure on him to withdraw his name from the mayoral race in order to elect RPP’s pro-government candidate Shrawankumar Singh, unopposed, adding he had at first turned down the offer to step aside. Later, however, Home Minister Kamal Thapa started putting pressure on him to withdraw, Darlami said. “Do not worsen the already bad situation. Let us settle things through reconciliation”, Darlami quoted Thapa as saying over the phone. Darlami said even high-ranking security personnel had threatened him to pull out of the mayoral race. He claimed he could have easily have defeated the pro-government candidate had he not withdrawn his candidacy.