The Tamesis
kathmandu – Despite some minor incidents, nominations for the March 5 elections ended largely peacefully across the country on Tuesday. Several prominent candidates from different political parties submitted their nominations to the Election Commission offices in their respective constituencies. But some prominent figures and familiar faces in Nepali politics have also dropped out of the race.
Five-time prime minister and former Nepali Congress party chief Sher Bahadur Deuba is among the heavyweights who will not contest the election after being rejected from running. Duuba has been contesting and winning elections from his home constituency of Dadulla since 1991. But last week, there was a change in Congress leadership after the election of a new central working committee headed by Gagan Thapa, who was left out of the candidate list.
On Monday night, Deuba’s personal secretariat issued a statement saying that he will not contest this time. Not just Deuba, his wife Arzu Rana Deuba, who is keen to contest from Kailali, has also been left out.
But four other former prime ministers – KP Oli, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Madhav Kumar Nepal and Baburam Bhattarai – have submitted nominations from Jhapa-5, Rukum East, Rautahat-1 and Gorkha-2 respectively.
One of the most interesting and high-profile contests is going on between Oli and Barun Shah, who resigned as Kathmandu mayor earlier this week to contest elections. He is particularly popular among young voters and has millions of followers on social media. When Shah, now a senior leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSP), arrived in Jhapa on Tuesday to file his nomination, thousands of people gathered to see him. Shah is expected to be the party’s candidate for prime minister.
After the nomination, brief clashes broke out between supporters of Shah and Oli.
Former Prime Minister Dahal, who switched from Gorkha to Rukum East this time, said he has a habit of setting records.
“I have not contested multiple elections from the same constituency. I contested from Rolpa and Kathmandu simultaneously, then from Siraha, then from Chitwan and Gorkha and now I have reached Rukum East,” he told reporters after filing his nomination on Tuesday.
Dahal’s main challenger in the constituency is Sandeep Pun, the son of a martyr of the Maoist insurgency.
The former prime minister of Nepal filed his nomination in his hometown Rautahat-1. Former Prime Minister Bhattarai, who had earlier decided not to contest the election, had filed his nomination from Gorkha-2. He expressed support for alternative forces and the Gen Z movement in September, and expected support from the RSP.
In addition to the former prime minister, several party chairmen and presidents also submitted nominations on Tuesday. Gagan Kumar Thapa, who was elected president of the Nepali Congress through a special assembly last week, submitted the nomination for Sarlahi-4. His main opponent is former Nepali Congress leader and current RSP candidate Amresh Kumar Singh. Singh had won the constituency twice in the past, once from the Congress party and once as an independent. Thapa was elected twice in the past from Kathmandu District 4, but this time, he changed his constituency.
Similarly, RSP president Rabi Lamichane has also submitted nominations from Chitwan-3, where he has won twice in the past. Both Thapa and Ramichhane filed their candidatures through their lawyers.
Similarly, Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) chief Rajendra Lingden filed his nomination from Jhapa-3 and Janata Samajbadi Party chief Upendra Yadav filed his nomination from Saptari-3.
Congress II leaders Pradeep Poudel and Gururaj Ghimire are contesting from Kathmandu and Morang respectively. Senior Congress leaders Shekhar Koirala, Bimalendra Nidhi and others also submitted nominations.
Similarly, UML general secretary Shankar Pokharel, Ujalo Nepali Party chief and former energy minister Kulman Ghising and senior Maoist leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha also filed their candidatures on Tuesday. Another high-profile contest will be between Renu Dahal, former mayor of Bharatpur Metropolitan Municipality in Chitwan-2 and Sobita Gautam of RSP.
Harka Sampang resigned as mayor of Dharan Submetropolis to contest from Sunsari-1, while Renu Dahal also resigned as mayor of Bharatpur to contest from Chitwan-2.
Congress general secretary Poudel, RPP’s Kamal Thapa, CPN-UML leader and former deputy prime minister Ishwar Pokhrel and RSP’s Sashmit Pokhrel are contesting from Kathmandu 5 district.
This time, it includes Purna Bahadur Khadka, Dhanraj Gurung, Prakashman Singh, Mohan Basnet, Deepak Khadka, Sujata Koirala and Shashanka Koirala. Several senior leaders of the Congress Party, including the National Congress Party, were refused to buy votes.
Four ministers from the current Sushila Karki government who resigned to contest the election have filed their nominations – Ghising, Jagadish Karel, Bablu Gupta and Mahabir Pant from Kathmandu 3, Lalitpur 2, Siraha 1 and Miyagdi respectively.
Likewise, some senior UML leaders including Yogesh Bhattarai, Gokul Baskota, Surendra Pandey, Krishna Gopal Shrestha were also denied entry. They have been critical of CPN-ML leader Oli in recent months.
Senior RPP leaders such as Pashupati Sumsher Rana, Dhawal Sumsher Rana, Bikram Pandey, Prakash Chandra Lohani, Buddiman Tamang and Bikram Pandey were also denied tickets.
According to the Congress, out of the 165 candidates, 103 are new faces, while UML leaders said half of their candidates are new faces.
