Candidates, municipal mayors, deputy mayors, and provincial parliamentarians from various districts have begun arriving in Ghorahi to vote.
What you should know
The Lumbini Province National Assembly member election is being held in Ghorahi on Sunday. The Lumbini Province Election Office has informed that all preparations for the election have been completed.
The polling station has been prepared at the Ghorahi-based employee meeting center. Candidates, including municipal mayors, deputy mayors and provincial lawmakers from various districts, have started coming to Ghorahi for voting. Eight nominations have been registered from Lumbini Province for the National Assembly member election.
Three candidates were registered from the Congress-UML alliance, three from the Nepali Communist Party and two from the National Janamorcha. Three members are being elected from Lumbini Province, including women, disabled/minorities and others. For which, the Congress and the UML have coordinated to register their candidacies. UML had a quota for women, while the Congress had a quota for disabled and other groups. Accordingly, Ram Kumari Jhankri of Madane Rural Municipality-4, Gulmi, has been nominated from the UML.
Jhankri is the former Urban Development Minister. She was the central secretary of the Unified Socialist Party. Now, after returning to UML, she has got the opportunity to become a candidate for the National Assembly member. Jhankri, who established herself in politics through the student movement, is also the former central president of ANRFSU.
From the Congress, Basudev Ghimire of Lamahi Municipality-3, Dang, and Chandra Bahadur KC of Resunga Municipality-3, Gulmi, have registered their candidacies in the disabled quota. They are old leaders of the Congress.
Similarly, the Nepali Communist Party has also registered nominations for all three members. Durga Kumari Bhandari of Barangdi Rural Municipality-1, Palpa, has filed her nominations for the women's quota, Sarjan Bik of Baijanath Rural Municipality-5, Banke, has filed her nominations for the disabled, and Brihaspati Adhikari of Bardaghat Municipality-14, Nawalparasi (Bardaghat Susta West) has filed her nominations for the others.
The National Janamorcha has filed its candidacies in the women's and other quotas. Padma Pandit of Pyuthan Municipality-8, Pyuthan, has registered her nomination for the women's seat and Bom Bahadur Khatri of Mallarani Rural Municipality-2, Pyuthan, has registered her nomination for the others.
The terms of Gopal Bhattarai, elected from UML, Bimala Ghimire, Vice-Chairman of the National Assembly, and Jag Prasad Sharma of the then Maoist Center are ending on Falgun 20. Bhattarai, Ghimire, and Sharma were members from the women's and disabled quotas. Election Officer Prakash Prasad Pandit said that there are 304 voters in Lumbini Province, including 87 Provincial Assembly members and 217 local level chiefs and deputy chiefs.
