Congress largest party in FPTP polls
KATHMANDU, NOV 24 -
With the vote count under the first-past-the-post drawing to an end by the time the Post went to press on Saturday, the Nepali Congress , the second largest party in the first CA polls, bagged the most number of FPTP seats.
The NC has bagged 103 seats out of 240 followed by 90 of the CPN-UML. The UCPN (Maoist), the largest party in the previous election, stood third with 25 seats. The full strength of the parties will be known after the Election Commission announces the final results under the proportional representation system. A total of 335 candidates will be elected under PR.
The majority of senior NC and UML leaders, who lost the previous election, emerged victorious this time except for a few second-rung leaders. According to the EC, PR vote count will be completed within next week and the seats will be calculated based on the number of votes the parties secure.
Save party chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal and senior leader Baburam Bhattarai many UCPN (M) senior leaders were defeated in the election. Dahal and Bhattarai, who were in the fray from two constituencies, won from Siraha-5 and Gorkha-1 respectively.
Dahal secured 15,244 votes against UML candidate Lila Shrestha who bagged 14,323. In line with the party’s stance to press the EC to review vote count, Dahal has not received his winning certificate till Saturday. Though the UCPN (M) continued to save its legacy in the party’s heartlands, Rukum and Rolpa, it failed to make a clean sweep in Jajarkot. NC candidate Rajiv Bikram Shah defeated UCPN (M) candidate Bhakta Bahadur, while another Maoist candidate Shakti Basnet emerged victorious from another constituency in the district. Janardan Sharma and Ganesh Man Pun from Rukum and Krishna Bahadur Mahara and Onsari Gharti emerged victorious from Rolpa.
Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala, who was defeated by little-known Sarbadev Ojha in the previous election, won from Banke-3 and Chitwan-4. Senior NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba repeated his victory this time too from Kanchanpur and Dadeldhura.
Like the UCPN (M), top leaders of many Madhes-based parties, considered decisive forces in power sharing and constitution making process in the previous CA, were defeated this time. Sadbhawana Party Chairman Rajendra Mahato lost to Tarai Madhes Sadbhawana Party Chairman Mahenedra Yadav. Chairman of Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Nepal Upendra Yadav, who was defeated by NC candidate Amrit Aryal in Morang, won from Sunsari-5.
Chairman of Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Loktantrik Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar was elected from Sunsari-3. He, however, was defeated in Morang by NC’s Shekhar Koirala.
Chairman of Tarai Madhes Loktantrik Party Mahanta Thakur and senior leader Hriyadesh Tripathi also lost the election from Sarlahi-6 and Nawalparasi-6 respectively. NC candidate Amresh Kumar Singh defeated Thakur, while another NC candidate Devkaran Kalwar stood in the way of Tripathi.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
