Two ex-ministers face off in Siraha-4
Siraha, November 11
Two former ministers are in the fray for the upcoming parliamentary election from Siraha Constituency-4. While CPN-Maoist Centre’s politburo member and former minister Ajaya Shankar Nayak is contesting from the left alliance, former minister and Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal presidium member Rajkishor Yadav is running for a House of Representatives seat from the Madhesi alliance. Nepali Congress’s former lawmaker Mokhatar Alam is also contesting the poll in the constituency.
Considering the local level election results in the district, the left alliance is clearly ahead of other parties in the constituency. CPN-MC had won top posts in Mirchaiya and Karjanha municipalities both of which fall in the constituency, while UML had bagged victory in Naraha rural municipality of the district in the election.
NC had won a mayoral post in Kalyanpur Municipality and Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal had clinched chair in Bishnupur Rural Municipality. Then, RJP-N had managed to win four ward chair posts in the district.
As per sources, though FSF-N and RJP-N, as allies, are said to be in a strong position to win in the upcoming election, misgivings still persist between rival party cadres at many places, which is likely to impact the overall election result.
“Though the left alliance is speculated to be ahead of other parties on the basis of the past election results, we can’t say for sure that all the voters who cast their votes either for a UML or a Maoist candidate during the local election, will again vote for the alliance in this parliamentary and provincial election,” observed Laldev Sah, a local who is also headteacher of Kalyanpur-based Ramdulari Secondary School.
Left alliance candidate Nayak, however, seemed confident about his victory in the upcoming election. “This place has remained a communist stronghold for long and also the electoral alliance between UML and CPN-MC has increased our chances for victory here,” he said.
In contrary, RJP-N candidate Yadav said, “I have visited the people in this constituency and found that most of them support Madhes-based parties, unlike the way this place is described as a communist stronghold.”
