KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 9
Chiefs of all major political parties, including President of Nepali Congress and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Chair of CPN-Maoist Centre Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Chair of CPN-UML KP Sharma Oli, and Chair of CPN (Unified Socialist) Madhav Kumar Nepal filed their nomination papers today for the parliamentary elections scheduled for November 20.
CPN-Maoist Centre Pushpa Kamal Dahal filed his nomination papers from Gorkha constituency-2, Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal Chair Upendra Yadav filed his candidacy from Saptari constiturency-2, and Lokatantrik Samajbadi Party-Nepal Chair Mahantha Thakur filed his nomination papers from Mahottari constituency-3.
All the top leaders, except CPN-MC Chair Dahal and CPN (Unified Socialist) Chair Madhav Kumar Nepal have filed their nomination papers from the same constituencies from where they had contested in the last general elections.
While Dahal had contested the last general elections from Chitwan-3, Nepal had contest-ed from Kathmandu-2.
Dahal, flanked by Chair of Nepal Samajbadi Party Baburam Bhattarai and CPN-MC Vice-chair Narayan Kaji Shrestha, filed his candidacy from Gorkha-2. This is the fourth time Dahal, who is a permanent resident of Chitwan district, has changed his constituency. He had contested the first Constituency Assembly elections from Kathmandu-10 and Rolpa-2 in 2008. He had won from both the constituencies. In the 2013 CA elections, he was in the fray from Siraha-5 and won. In 2017, he won the parliamentary elections from his home constituency of Chitwan-3.
Dahal chose Gorkha-2 as it is the home constituency of Baburam Bhattarai, whose party has forged an electoral alliance with the CPN-MC. Bhattarai's daughter Manushi Yami Bhattarai has filed her candidacy from Kathmandu-7 and is being supported by the ruling parties' alliance.
In an attempt to attract voters, Dahal said Gorkha was an important district in the context of modern development of Nepal and it was where he had worked as a teacher in his youth. He said he had set up his party's headquarters in Gorkha before launching the Maoist insurgency and it was in this district, he had trained Maoist guerillas before the Maoist insurgency.
Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, meanwhile, filed his nomination papers from his home constituency of Dadeldhura through his spouse Arzu Rana Deuba. Deuba is among a few leaders who have won all parliamentary elections since the restoration of democracy in 1990.
The ruling alliance reached an agreement with Mahantha Thakur-led LSP-N, allotting it eight parliamentary first-pastthe-post seats and 16 provincial FPTP seats.
In accordance with the seat-sharing agreement, out of 165 Parliamentary FPTP seats, the Nepali Congress will get 90 HoR seats, CPN-MC 45 federal seats, CPN (Unified Socialist) 20 seats, and Rastriya Janamorcha two seats.
JSP-N, which was unhappy with the ruling alliance over the offer of parliamentary seats, left the alliance and reached a seat-sharing agreement with the CPN-UML. The UML agreed to support the JSP-N for 17 parliamentary seats in Madhes.
UML leaders Ghana Shyam Bhusal and Bhim Bahadur Rawal, who were on a collusion course with party Chair KP Sharma Oli, were not given tickets to contest elections. Bhusal filed his candidacy from Rupandehi-1 constituency as an independent candidate. He said CPN-MC ChairPushpa Kamal Dahal assured him that the ruling alliance would support him in the election. Oli, meanwhile, filed his candidacy from Jhapa-5 parliamentary seat.
NC's Amresh Kumar Singh and Minendra Rijal were also denied tickets. Singh filed his candidacy from Sarlahi-4 as an independent candidate. The NC gave ticket to Sujata Koirala from Morang-2 from where Rijal had contested and won in 2017.
According to a press release issued by the Election Commission, a total of 2,128 candidates, including 1,937 men and 191 women, have filed their nomination papers for the 165 FPTP parliamentary seats. A total of 2,845 candidates, including 2,600 men, 244 women, and one other have filed their nominations for 330 provincial assembly seats. An EC source said the total number of candidates could increase as the poll panel was still in the process of collecting information from far flung areas, particularly in Karnali. The source said the EC could not get complete information from across the country due to disruption in telephone and internet communication.
A version of this article appears in the print on October 10, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
