Rolpa/Itahari, April 13:

The CPN-Maoist won both the seats in Rolpa district, which is considered the birthplace of the Maoist insurgency in Nepal.

From Rolpa-2, Maoist chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ won the election, securing 34,220 votes. Prachanda’s closest rival, Shanta Kumar Wali of the CPN-UML, secured 6029 votes. Bhim Kumari Budha of the Nepali Congress finished third, securing 4,888 votes. Of the total 82,462 voters in Rolpa district constituency no 2, only 48,546 voters cast votes, the Rolpa district election office said. A total of 1,173 votes were discarded, it said.

From Rolpa-1, CPN-Maoist’s Jayapuri Gharti emerged victorious, securing 26,505 votes while her closest rival Madhav Prasad Acharya of the Nepali Congress bagged 4,946 votes. Amar Bahadur Thapa of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) finished third, scoring 2,506 votes. The total number of voters in Rolpa-1 is 71,504. Of them, 40,357 voters had cast votes. Of the total votes cast, 1,907 were discarded, chief election officer Khil Raj Regmi said.

After their victory, Maoist cadres took out a rally. The victory rally began from Tundikhel in Liwang, Rolpa district headquarters, and passed through Liwang. Jayapuri Gharti was in the rally. Deputy commander of the CPN-Maoist Nanda Kishor Pun ‘Pasang’ was also in the rally.

Speaking in a victory assembly in Khulamuch, Jayapuri Gharti claimed that the victory of the Maoists reflected Nepali people’s desire for change.

“Our party will try to draft a new constitution based on consensus among all parties,” Gharti said. Maoist cadres had arrived in Liwang from different VDCs of Rolpa to celebrate the victory of the Maoists.

Stating that there has been a foul play in different polling stations of the district, political parties, including the Nepali Congress, had lodged a complaint in the Rolpa district election office against the Maoists. In a release, they had said that they had decided to boycott vote-counting saying that their grudges had gone unheard.

However, the election office had gone ahead with vote-counting, saying that the election was peaceful. Counting of votes for the election held under the PR system has begun in Rolpa district. A report from Mahottari said Janmorcha Nepal candidate Giriraj Mani Pokhrel from Constituency No 1 of Mahottari district has won the constituency with 10,194 votes. “Pokhrel’s nearest rival Arun Kumar Singh of the UML bagged 8,842 votes,” district election officer Navraj Dahal said.

A report from Itahari said vote-counting for Sunsari-6 was stopped today when a dispute flared up among the political parties after a ballot paper of a different colour was found in one box. UML was leading by two-fold over the Maoist candidate while the counting was going on.

Meanwhile, counting for Sunsari-2 was also stalled as the RPP district unit locked up the counting alleging that the other parties had resorted to rigging. An all-party meeting held today agreed to probe the RPP’s allegation, but counting did not resume even then. Maoist candidate Kiran Rai won in Sunsari-1.

MJF president Upendra Yadav won in Sunsari-5. Counting for Sunsari-3 and 4 is going on. MJF is leading in Sunsari-3 and 4. MJF candidate Bijay Kumar Gachhedar is contesting from Sunsari-3.

The Maoists bagged all five constituencies of Dang breaching the NC citadel there. In Dang-1, Maoist candidate Indrajit Tharu won securing 18,013 votes.

In Dang-2, Maoist candidate Dama Sharma won the CA seat with 20,116 votes defeating his nearest rival Krishna Kishor Ghimire of NC (6,828 votes).

Maoist candidate and Information and Communications Minister KB Mahara secured 20,784 votes in Dang-3 defeating his nearest rival Anita Devkot of NC (10,81 votes).

In Dang-4, Maoist candidate Shiv Raj Gautam won with 18,854 votes. In Dang-5, Maoist candidate Sushma Sharma Ghimire secured 17,062 votes. A report from Bhairahawa said Maoist candidate Ghanshyam Yadav won in Rupandehi-1.

MJF’s Om Prakash Yadav Gulzari won Rupandehi’s seat 2.

NC’s Bal Krishna Khand won seat 3. UML’s Bishnu Poudel won seat 4 with 15,880 votes. UML’s Ram Nath Dhakal won seat 5.

In Rupandehi-6, MJF’s Om Prakash Yadav won with 12, 170 votes defeating rival TMDP stalwart Sarvendra Nath Shukla. In Rupandehi’s seat 7, MJF’s Mohammed Wakil won. Maoist candidate Dawa Tamang won in Sindhupalchowk with 14,216 votes defeating his nearest rival UML’s Sher Bahadur Tamang who polled 14, 116 votes. In Banke-2, MJF candidate Mohammed Ishtiyaque Raeen won.

Maoist Devi Lal Chaudhari won seat 2 of Kanchanpur. In Baitadi, Maoist Narendra Kunwar won seat number 1. The Maoists claimed three seats from Chitwan. Maoist’s Narayan Prasad Dahal won from Chitwan 3 and Chitra Bahadur Shrestha won from Chitwan 4.