Leaders of religious leaders

In every election, the practice of candidates going to Larumba with a larco of workers to meet the religious leader is not new in Elam. This time, the new parties are the only ones who are mixed in this mess.

In the past, not only UML president KP Sharma Oli, Subash Chandra Nemwang, Ram Rana, but the current candidates of Congress, Dumbar Khadka, Bheshraj Acharya, Dhiren Sharma of Maoist used to go to Larumba.

Leaders and candidates of the party have come to meet him in the belief that he has a few thousand votes in his pocket. The candidates of the newly called RSVP and Janamat Party also followed suit.

RSVP's Milan Limbu had reached Guru Darshan even before announcing his candidacy. Later, he arrived for the second time along with Chairman Lamichhane. "Larumba is our religious place," said Limbu, "I went to see the guru." Last time, he claimed that he went because the home minister was also interested in meeting the guru. "I only went to get the Guru's blessings," he said, "there is no other interest."

According to political scientist Yuddha Prasad Vaidya, the candidates come to meet him with the desire to win the votes of the religious guru's followers. "Leaders have come to meet the guru because of the greed of votes," he said, "It is a very old custom for leaders to get blessings by pleasing the guru." According to locals, there are followers of the religious guru in Phakphokthum, Mangsebung, Mai, Deumai and Chulachuli areas.

In the past, Larumba's guru was said to be positive towards UML leader Subas Nemwang. Everyone is interested in where Larumba is leaning this time. There is also speculation in the political circle that Larumba Guru's inclination may go towards those who entered the election field with identity politics. Dakendrasingh Thegim, who became a candidate from the identityist side, after retiring from the teaching profession, served the Guru in Larumba and some are speculating that the Guru's inclination is towards Thegim.

Guru had celebrated the election rally of identityist candidate Thegim only on Monday. As of Tuesday, it was not clear where Larumba's guru's vote would fall, but all the candidates seem to be aware that whether his leanings will taint identity politics could affect the election.

After the naming of Koshi province during the tenure of the then Chief Minister of UML, Hikmat Karki, identityists have been continuously protesting against it. Well, UML candidate Suhang Nemwang is claiming that they are not anti-identity and they are doing identity politics.

But although Subas Nemwang reached Larumba before the election in the past years, his son Suhang has not followed his father's path this time. The leaders of UML say that the identity issue is the main reason why he did not go to Larumba.

Congress candidate Dumbar Khadka seems hesitant to pronounce Koshi Pradesh's name in public. He has been reassuring his workers who are connected with the identity and claiming that he is a supporter of the identity. He says, 'I protested by getting all the 14 district presidents of the state to sign the name of Koshi province.' Only on Monday, a team including Congress General Minister Vishwa Prakash Sharma also reached Larumba and returned after meeting the religious leader. Congress workers are interpreting their meeting as a part of the upcoming election campaign.

Mahamantri Sharma told that he went to meet the Guru because he was one of the few people loved by the religious leader. He liked the speech made by Sharma some time ago that the name of the state should be 'Virat-Kirat'. He said that while talking to the Guru for some time, the Guru himself seemed to be confused this time.