Who will reach Parliament from Chitwan-2? Such is arithmetic

KATHMANDU: The parties in Chitwan-2, the most well-known of the by-elections, are focused on the election and campaigning. Candidates have begun visiting towns to campaign with focused programs for the April 23 by-elections.

Jit Narayan Shrestha of the Nepali Congress, a candidate in the ruling alliance, has formally launched the door-to-door campaign. Shrestha also notified people that door-to-door visits will be conducted to convey the grounds for the district elections. ‘The construction of the house has begun. ‘We believe we will win people’s trust and votes,’ he said.

Here the rebel candidate has also returned to the Congress. The Chitwan Congress leaders, who defected against the Congress’s partnership in the last election, have become an impediment to the Congress candidate’s win in the by-election.

Dinesh Koirala, former president of the Chitwan Congress, Krishnalal Sapkota, former MP Bhim Bahadur Tamang, and General Committee member Mina Kharel, who had revolted after not receiving tickets, released a unified statement and supported the Congress in the by-elections.

Shrestha Chitwan, the candidate, is a popular Congress leader. His plan is to make Ravi’s citizenship and passport a huge election issue. Shrestha declared that Chitwan is not a testing ground for leaders and that he will win this time by a large margin.

Rabi Lamichhane, the central President of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), has intensified his door-to-door and activist meetings after registering his candidacy. He said that his candidacy is also to bring purity in politics and create jobs in Nepal. Lamichhane said that he is confident that he will win the election this time as well. It seems likely that Rabi will win in Chitwan-2, a well-known constituency.

Rabi is confident that he will win the upcoming elections with popular votes as public opinion is attracted to the RSP and his MPs and ministers have not been fully tested yet. However, after finding him guilty in the citizenship case, the Supreme Court dismissed him as MP, party chair, deputy prime minister and home minister, and the opposition is expecting that public opinion will be divided this time.

The opposition UML has chosen prominent leader and district president Ram Prasad Neupane. After Rabi’s challenger, well-known leader Krishna Bhakta Pokharel, withdrew, UML nominated Neupane as the candidate. The UML has begun a door-to-door campaign in Ichchakamana Rural Municipality-1 Hattiwang.

District Vice Chair Kamal Pathak stated that the door-to-door program has been facilitated as UML has been conducting mission grassroots campaign for the past month. The UML is fighting to reclaim the branch it lost in the House of Representatives election on November 20.

Whose how many votes?

Here, the votes received by the parties in the elections held last November have been analysed. However, there is no basis that parties and candidates get votes in this same figure.

Looking at the election results, RSP is ahead with a majority of votes. Rabi got 49,300 votes in Chitwan-2. His rival Congress candidate Shrestha got 14,988 votes. UML’s Pokharel got 14,652 votes.

On the proportional side, there are 35 ,945 votes of RSVP, 16,784 of UML, 12,132 of Congress, 8,407 of Maoist and 3,218 of RPP, 616 of CPN-S, 456 of Mongol National Organization, 330 of Sushasan Party, 220 of UML, 155 of JSP, 126 of HNP, 124 of NUP and 122 of Jana Morcha.

Looking at the statistics, the ruling party got a total of 21,556 votes, while the RSP alone got 35,945 votes. UML got 16,784 votes, RPP got 3,218 votes and others got 1,132 votes.