Myagdi, Feb 6: The main competition in the upcoming House of Representatives election is expected to be between the political parties and independent candidates in Myagdi, which has only one electoral constituency.
Karna Bahadur Bhandari (KB) of the Nepali Congress, Hari Krishna Shrestha of the Communist Party of Nepal (UML), Arjun Thapa of the Nepali Communist Party (NCP) and independent candidate Dr Mahabir Pun are considered as the main contenders.
Pun, having resigned from the position of Minister of Education, Science and Technology of the interim government on the day of filing his nomination is contesting elections in his ancestral home district and this has created ripples in local politics.
Dhananjay Kumar Shrestha from Beni says that this election has generated much interest in the district due to the different environment created in national politics, the emergence of new political forces, the influence of competing candidates, and the strategies of the associated political parties and candidates.
He said, “In previous elections, the elections in Myagdi, which were overlooked at the national level, have been brought into the spotlight this time by the candidacy of the Roman Magsaysay award-winning Mahabir Pun. The elections in Myagdi have been made more interesting this time due to the organisational base of political parties and the influence of independent candidates.”
The Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) led by Netra Bikram Chand (Biplav), has nominated Kshetra Bahadur Ghimire (Dhruba), former Free Student Union president of Myagdi Multiple Campus, who was involved in underground politics during the conflict period, as a candidate.
Dammar Bahadur Subedi of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), Devendra Kami of the Pragatisheel Loktantrik Party, Binod Rana of the Shram Sanskriti Party, Chhem Bahadur Bishwakarma of the Rastriya Janamorcha, Bhim Bahadur Lama of the Mongol National Organisation and Tul Prasad Garbuja of the National Republican Nepal are also in the election fray.
The candidacy of Yubaraj Roka of the Rastriya Swatantra Party, who publicly announced support for independent candidate Pun, remains intact. Shrestha of the UML is a candidate for the second time, while all others are contesting for the first time.Since 2017, this time the parties are set to compete individually without forming any pre-election alliances.
In the 2022 House of Representatives election, the UML received 18,273 votes, the Nepali Congress 13,693 votes, the CPN (Maoist Centre) 9,070 votes, the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) 3,579 votes, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) 1,253 votes and the CPN (Unified Socialist) received 285 votes. In 2022, Garbuja of the Nepali Congress, supported by the Maoists, Unified Socialist and Janamorcha among other parties, won by securing 24,021 votes while his closest competitor Shrestha received 20,189 votes.
There are 86,397 voters in Myagdi with six local levels and which is a single electoral constituency for the election of the House of Representatives member. The district election officer Bimal Prasad Gautam said that there are 82 polling stations and 120 polling centres in the district.
The election candidates have started visiting the villages to meet voters, activists, and households. The rural areas here have become agog with political activities of the candidates.
The candidates have committed to ensuring good governance by making public service delivery technology-friendly, eliminating administrative delays, and incorporating the sentiments, demands and needs of the district residents in laws, budgets and plans.
