Tikapur, November 28

With polling day in Kailali district only a week away, the atmosphere in Tikapur of Kailali-4 is calm and low-pitched. Voters and candidates have preferred to maintain a low profile.

The election publicity campaigns are sparse compared to other places with no aggressive campaigning and fewer publicity materials, such as party flags, posters and pamphlets. The candidates did not even carry out door-to-door campaigning.

The indifferent voters of Tikapur  said they would give their verdict on polling day. “We will decide only on the polling day,” said voters in Tikapur.

Seven policemen and a child, were killed in violence on August 24, 2015 during Tharuhat movement in Tikapur.

The incident is still fresh in the memories of people here. “After that incident, political aggression in Tikapur has almost vanished,” said Govinda Chaudhary, who had taken blows from security forces during the violence. “I was beaten while working and wasn’t even able to seek treatment for nearly a week,” he recalled.

Voters of Tikapur, Kailali-4, are well aware of candidates contesting the polls. The top two contenders here are women and four are from the Tharu community. Among them, Resham Chaudary, who is in the wanted list of Nepal Police, was nominated as candidate through an agent. “We know the election is a week away, but nobody likes to talk about parties and candidates”, said another local Meera Chaudahry.

Former chair of District Development Committee, Kailali, who is also a resident of Tikapur, Nayaryan Mishra told THT that people were concerned about maintaining social harmony to erase the bad memories of the violence. ‘’The people have been participating in each other’s festivals to create social cohesion. The hill origin people are dancing the Sakhiya (traditional Tharu dance) and the Tharus partake in Deuda (traditional dance of far-western hills),” he added.

Infrastructure development is the only aspiration of Tikapur voters. Ganesh Chaudhary, who is voting for the first time in next week’s poll, said when locals gather in teashops, they like to talk about trade and development rather than elections and candidates.