Chitwan, May 11

With the nomination of Prime Minister Puspa Kamal Dahal’s daughter Renu Dahal for the mayoral post, Bharatpur metropolis has suddenly shot to the limelight.

With just a few days left for the polls, election fever has gripped the metropolis as everyone eagerly awaits to see whether the prime minister’s daughter will nail it.

On the final day of the election campaign, chiefs of the three major parties arrived in Bharatpur to address election gatherings.

While CPN-UML Chairperson KP Sharma Oli criticised the ruling CPN-MC and Nepali Congress  at an election mass meeting, he also solicited votes for the mayor candidate of his own party; NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN-MC Chairperson and Prime Minister Puspa Kamal Dahal, on the other hand, criticised the UML and sought votes for Renu Dahal. This gave the impression Bharatpur battle was more important than anywhere in the country.

In a joint meeting of Nepali Congress and CPN-MC in Bharatpur today, Deuba pledged to give the NC-CPN-C alliance continuity through all three levels of elections. Dahal also identified Deuba as the future prime minister of the country. He, however, abstained from revealing when Deuba would take over. “There was dangerous scenario when I came to power, but it’s the NC-CPN-MC coalition that successfully dealt with the situation and created the environment for polls by taking everyone into confidence,” he said.

Dahal also took credit for ending the excessively long hours of load-shedding in the country. “There was load-shedding up to 16 hours, but the NC-CPN-MC coalition ended it for good,” argued the PM, who described the alliance between the two parties for Bharatpur Metropolis as the need of history. “This alliance is not a coincidence. It’s something necessitated by history,” he observed, adding that the alliance would help develop the metropolis as a model city not only in Nepal, but the entire South Asia.

Dahal also urged all not to see the mayoral candidate as his daughter only but also to evaluate how much she has contributed to the party.

On his part, Deuba tried to justify the need of the alliance between the two parties. “In fact there is no option for us to go together by forging alliance till the provincial and federal elections, at least for the sake of constitution implementation,” he said, underscoring the need for national unity.  “Actually, it’s not only in Bharatpur that we have forged alliance. If we don’t cooperate here, it will also have a bearing on the election results in Pokhara,” he said, telling the party rank and file to follow the directives of the centre.

“Don’t fall for anyone’s provocations. Vote for the joint panel of Congress and Maoists,” Deuba urged.