Elections to the Constituent Assembly were expected to be held after the end of the Rana regime in 2007 BS. After the end of the Rana regime, Tribhuvan had declared, "Let the rule of our people henceforth be according to a republican constitution formulated by a legitimate assembly elected by them."

Under the leadership of the last Rana Prime Minister Mohan Shumsher, a joint cabinet was formed to hold elections within 2 years. BP Koirala from the Congress became the Home Minister. However, the country had to wait until 2015 for the first general election. From 2007 until the 2015 elections, the king had established himself as powerful and supreme.

In ‘First Parliament: BP-Mahendra Clash’, Jagat Nepal writes, ‘In a short period of seven years, a Rana-Congress joint government, a Congress government under the leadership of Matrika Prasad Koirala, a consultative government under the leadership of Keshar Shumsher, a Rastriya Praja Party government under the leadership of Matrika, a consultative government under the leadership of Gunjaman Singh, Tanka Prasad Acharya, Dr. KI Singh, and many other governments were formed.’

On 2 Jestha 2015, King Mahendra made Suvarna Shumsher the chairman of the cabinet. Dilli Raman Regmi, Bhupal Man Singh Karki, Purendra Bikram Shah, Chandra Bhushan Pandey and Randhir Subba also became ministers in the electoral government. Seeing that elections were likely, Matrika Prasad Koirala merged the Rastriya Praja Party with the Congress. The Congress, however, had hoped that the King would announce elections to the Constituent Assembly. On the contrary, the King announced only general elections.

In protest against the King's announcement, the Congress formed a democratic front under his leadership for a nationwide civil disobedience movement. The Praja Parishad and the National Congress also participated in this. The movement intensified across the country from 22 Mangsir 2014. Prisons began to fill up. Dr. KI Singh resigned as Prime Minister, citing the political situation as an excuse for not being able to hold elections.

Amidst political turmoil, on 19 Magh 2014, the King formed a constitution drafting committee under the chairmanship of Bhagwati Prasad Singh, the acting chairman of the Public Service Commission, to draft the 'Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal-2015'. The committee included Surya Prasad Upadhyay of the Nepali Congress, Randhir Subba of the Gorkha Council, Ramraj Pant, Principal of Nepal Law Campus, and Hora Prasad Joshi of the Nepali Congress.

A new constitution was promulgated by King Mahendra on 1 Falgun 2015 based on the draft constitution prepared by the same committee. The constitution provided for a national legislature, the highest body to govern the state, elect the government based on the majority obtained in the parliament, and formulate a method to guide the government. The constitution itself clarified the election arrangements. The lower house, directly elected by the people, was to be the House of Representatives. Similarly, the House of Representatives was to be formed with half of the members elected and half nominated by the king. And, the country's first general election was scheduled for 7 Falgun 2015. 

The famous American newspaper The New York Times had also published news about the first parliamentary election to be held in Nepal with priority in its edition of 15 February 1959 (4 Falgun 2015). ‘This week, the small Himalayan kingdom of Nepal is holding regular elections for the first time in its long history. It will end centuries of authoritarian monarchy or aristocracy. It is an attempt to introduce some kind of revised constitutional democracy,’ wrote the New York Times, and the election took place.

The country’s first general election was set for 7 February 2015 to elect 109 members of the House of Representatives. A total of 786 candidates, including 518 from nine parties and 268 independents, were in the fray. The age limit for candidates to be eligible to run for the House of Representatives was 25 years. Voters were required to be 21 years old. The Election Commission had given separate election symbols to parties that could field candidates in at least 22 constituencies.

The Congress had a tree, the Nepali National Congress had an umbrella, the Nepal Praja Parishad (Acharya faction) had a rice basket, the Nepal Nationalist Gorkha Council had a hut, the Nepal Praja Parishad (Mixed faction) had a plow, and the Communist Party of Nepal had three sheaves of corn and a sickle. The Congress fielded the most candidates in 108 constituencies in the election. Similarly, the Gorkha Council fielded 86, the Nepal Communist Party fielded 47, the Praja Parishad Acharya faction fielded 46, and the Mishra faction fielded 36 constituencies. The highest number of votes was cast in Constituency No. 1 (Kathmandu) at 27,394, and the lowest was cast in Constituency No. 76 at 6,087.

There was no ballot paper in the 2015 parliamentary elections. There were as many ballot boxes with election symbols as there were candidates. Jagat Nepal has written about the voting at that time in his book ‘First Parliament: BP-Mahendra Confrontation’, ‘Ballot boxes with election symbols of each party and candidate were placed in rows.

A small piece of paper with the first election written on it was given to the voters and arrangements were made to drop it in the box with the election symbol of the candidate they liked.’ Some people left the papers outside the box and walked away. Out of 42,46,468 voters, 1,981,381 voted. The voter turnout in the first general election was 42.18 percent. Although the election was completed 45 days after it began (on Chait 28), the final results were made public on Baisakh 28, 2016. Many sources state that it took 45 days for the election to be completed. However, researcher Ratan Bhandari claims that the 2015 election was completed in 80 days. Citing Gorkhapatra dated Baisakh 24, 2016, he said that the last polling took place in Constituency No. 87 Baglung-North (Chharka Bhot) 7 No. 'Gho' Center on Baisakh 25, 2016. About 17,000 employees were deployed to conduct the election. The Nepali Congress led by BP Koirala won a two-thirds majority in parliament with 74 seats in the election. In second place, the Gorkha Parishad won 19 constituencies and the NCP won 4 seats. Similarly, the Praja Parishad Acharya faction won 2 seats. King Mahendra himself was running around the country to assess the results of the vote. After the report of the intelligence and security agencies, he was confident that no one would get a majority. Only then was he ready to hold the election. But the result was contrary to his expectations. The Congress won two-thirds of the seats.

Except for BP, Ganeshman and Surban, all the big leaders lost

Except for BP Koirala, Ganeshman Singh and Suvarna Shumsher, all the big leaders were defeated in the election. BP won the election from Morang and Ganeshman Singh from Constituency No. 1, Kathmandu. BP had initially registered his candidacy from Constituency No. 13, Ramechhap and Constituency No. 32, Morang. But he withdrew his candidacy from Ramechhap. NCP Politburo member Pushpalal Shrestha lost the election to Ganeshman.

Girija Prasad Koirala said in 'Afnai Kura' that his brother Matrika was the one who tried to defeat BP. Girija has mentioned in the same book that his mother raised Awadhesh Narayan in the same constituency where BP emerged and he went to Farveshgunj to settle. Congress leader Subarna Shamsher, who is also the chairman of the Council of Ministers, won all three constituencies (52, 53 and 91). He won without taking a step in the constituency. He also registered his candidacy through his heirs.

Former Prime Minister Dr. KI Singh was defeated by Nepali Congress candidate Shivraj Pant in constituency number 71. Nationalist Gorkha Parishad leader Bharat Shamsher Rana won the election from constituency number 107, Dhading. Tanka Prasad Acharya of Praja Parishad, who is also a former Prime Minister, lost in Kathmandu constituency number 5. He finished fourth among the 5 candidates. Lochan Shamsher Thapa of the Samyukta Prajatantra Party won in that constituency.

In addition, founding leader of the Congress, Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, was also defeated. Gorkha constituency number In 104, Bishwanath Subedi of Gorkha Parishad defeated him. From West Palpa constituency no. 93, NCP general secretary Kesharjung Rayamajhi lost the election. He was defeated by Congress leader Achyut Raj Regmi. 

Various forms of campaigning

The Election Commission appealed to voters to participate in the election through media outlets including Radio Nepal and Gorkhapatra. Similarly, the candidates also adopted their own styles of campaigning. They made pamphlets and composed election songs. In Palpa constituency no. 94, Kamal Raj Regmi used to campaign with a painter and a singer.

Regmi writes in ‘Ma Aama Ra Palpa’, ‘Purna Singh Nepali (Sarki) and Prakash Chitrakar (Damai), who were in my company from the beginning and were like brothers who walked, ate and slept with me, were involved in the election campaign in different ways. Prakash Chitrakar used to go around drawing pictures of my election symbol. Purna Nepali used to sing in a very sweet voice, ‘O farmer brothers who live in the past, vote for Kamal Raj Regmi.’

There was no shortage of election slogans either. The Gorkha Parishad had said that it would do such and such work if it formed its government. Its slogans were focused on development. If the Gorkha Parishad won the election and got the opportunity to lead the government, it had made public a commitment letter that it would double the living standards of the people within five years, open 200 hospitals, build 2,000 bridges, build canals and dams everywhere, build 2-3,000 schools, and make primary education compulsory and free throughout the country.

Similarly, the Nepali Congress had also made pamphlets with its election symbol. The Congress had published a pamphlet calling on the rival parties to not believe in false propaganda. ‘Do not believe lies, do not forget the photo of the Kalpavriksha,’ it said in a pamphlet published by the Congress. Similarly, like other parties, the Congress had also published pamphlets calling on people to vote. The pamphlet issued by the Chitwan District Publicity Department of the Nepali Congress said, ‘Remember, on Falgun 15, we have to sustain democracy by casting our votes in the box with a tree – we have to improve our district.’ Similarly, another pamphlet made with the election symbol tree reads, ‘The Nepali Congress is the only party that can provide welfare to 8.5 million Nepalis.

Deposit 250, election expenditure limit 5 thousand

The Election Commission had set a deposit of 250 rupees for nomination of candidates. It was not easy for the party and its candidates to raise even that. Because the country’s economy was not strong. In the annual budget presented by Finance Minister Suvarna Shumsher on 19 Magh 2008, it was mentioned that after cutting expenses in 2007, there was a profit of only 4.394 million rupees. The total income in 2007 was 29 million 81 thousand, while the expenditure was 24.687 million rupees.

In such a situation, it was not easy to collect donations. The traders insisted that they would donate only when asked by the Congress treasurer Suvarna. Subarna had previously asked for donations from businessmen for the 2007 revolution. A large part of the money raised in this way had already been spent on buying weapons for the revolution.

Therefore, Subarna did not ask for donations from businessmen for the election. Instead, he himself gave 1 million rupees to the party for the election campaign. After receiving that amount, the Congress gave 5,000 rupees each to candidates from 108 constituencies. The Congress's 'Big Four' (BP, Subarna, Ganeshman and Surya Prasad) and those contesting elections in more than one constituency received more.

BP - The first elected Prime Minister

After the Congress became the largest party in the parliament with two-thirds of the seats, BP Koirala became the first elected Prime Minister of Nepal on 13 Jestha 2016. Dwarika Devi Thakurani also became a minister in the BP cabinet. She is the country's first elected woman MP and minister. Similarly, Ram Narayan Mishra, Parshu Narayan Chaudhary, Suryanath Yadav, Ganeshman Singh, Min Bahadur Gurung, Yogendraman Sherchan, Zaman Singh Gurung and Dewan Singh Rai became ministers in the same cabinet.

The 2015 constitution had provided for a multi-party system and constitutional monarchy in the country. However, the election results were unexpected for the palace and the parties that did not succeed in the elections. Therefore, they did not accept the results gladly. Although Dr. KI Singh knocked on the door of the court against the results, the validity of the election was confirmed after the court dismissed the writ.

The 2015 general election was a new experience for the villages and cities of Nepal. Election symbols, speeches, processions and polling stations - all these things were new to the voters. That is why they had a special enthusiasm. Everyone from the illiterate, farmers, workers to the educated class considered the right to vote like a political festival. The election made the Nepali people citizens, transformed them into voters and gave a message that the state should always be run by the people, not the palace. The parliament and government formed in 2015 had taken some progressive decisions for social transformation.

BP Koirala's government stood for reform, freedom and social justice. Land reform, press freedom and people-oriented governance were the primary agenda of the government. With the general elections of 2015, a new chapter in democratic practice and civic consciousness began in Nepal. But this democratic practice did not last long. On 1 Poush 2017, King Mahendra dissolved the parliament and dismissed the elected government. With the king's move, the country was pushed towards the Panchayat system.