• LOCAL POLLS
KATHMANDU, APRIL 20
The ruling coalition today finalised the blueprint of their local poll tie-up for six metropolitan and 11 sub-metropolitan cities that go to poll on May 13.
A meeting of the ruling coalition held at Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's official residence in Baluwatar finally reached an agreement that out of the six metropolitan cities, the Nepali Congress will field mayoral candidates in Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Biratnagar, according to Minister of Communications and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki.
The meeting also decided to give one mayoral seat each to the CPN-Maoist Centre, the Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal, and the CPN (Unified Socialist). As per the understanding, the CPN-MC will field mayoral candidates in Bharatpur Metropolitan City and the CPN (US) in Pokhara Metropolitan City.
The JSP-N will field mayoral candidate in Birgunj Metropolitan City.
The NC will contest deputy mayoral race in Birgunj, Bharatpur, and Pokhara metropolitan cities. It will field mayoral candidates in seven of the 11 sub-metropolitan cities - Dharan, Itahari, Kalaiya, Butwal, Tulsipur, Nepalgunj, and Dhangadi. CPN-MC will do so in two and JSP-N and Unified Socialist in one each.
Sub-metropolitan cities where the NC will field candidates for deputy mayors include Jitpur Simara, Ghorahi, Hetauda, and Janakpur.
CPN-MC will field mayoral candidates in Jitpur Simara, Dharan, Dhangadi, and Ghorahi sub-metropolitan cities.
The party will also contest for the post of deputy mayor in Lalitpur metropolis.
CPN (Unified Socialist) will field a mayoral candidate in Hetauda and will contest for the deputy mayor's post in Kathmandu Metropolitan City and Itahari, Tulsipur, and Butwal sub-metropolitan cities.
JSP-N will contest mayoral seats in Janakpur and Birgunj and will field its candidate for deputy mayor in Biratnagar.
NC had won mayoral race in Lalitpur and Biratnagar metropolitan cities in the last local election; CPN-UML won in Kathmandu and Pokhara; CPN-MC won in Bharatpur; and the then Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal won in Birgunj.
A version of this article appears in the print on April 21, 2022, of The Himalayan Times
