There are 42 households living in Kutiakbhar, located in Dodhara Chandni Municipality-10 of Kanchanpur. Where the Nepal-India border is separated by a dirt road, the locals are forced to rely on India for salt, oil, and daily necessities.

‘If there was a concrete bridge over the Jogbudha River, we would no longer have to rely on India for everything from consumer goods to fertilizers and seeds,’ said local Mahesh Mani Sharma. ‘The suspension bridge was built in 2072 BS, who will build a concrete bridge now?’ 

Ratanlal Sunar, 73, of the same settlement says that he demanded a concrete bridge as soon as the suspension bridge was built. ‘We say this every time leaders come to power,’ he said. ‘This time too, the settlement will vote for the candidate who can build a concrete bridge.’ Once the concrete bridge is built, the settlement will be connected to Amboj in Kanchanpur and will have access to the nearby No. 9 market.

Although they have been living here since 2023 BS, the locals do not have land titles and have been living illegally. Every year, the Jogbudha and Mahakali rivers flood, inundating the settlement. There are also human casualties during this time. Two secure community buildings have been built in the settlement with the help of the Nepali Army, Dodhara Chandani Municipality and various NGOs. During the rainy season, locals live in the same building collectively. Locals say that embankment work is underway. 

Locals say that many of their demands were fulfilled by former Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak, who won the election from Kanchanpur-3 from the Congress in 2079 BS. ‘Whether he won the election or lost, he used to come to the village once a month,’ says local Mahesh Mani Sharma, ‘I haven’t seen him for a long time now, he is among the leaders who believe in the development of the village.’ He said that they were greatly relieved that the suspension bridge was built on the initiative of the writer. However, he said that he was surprised when the writer did not get a ticket from the Congress. 

Many people were concerned about the writer’s interest in the inner settlement and openly praised the development work he had done. However, in the Mahendranagar market area, there were people who praised the work he had done, but now many people also heard the idea that new faces should be found instead of the old ones. Prakash Chand, 44, a businessman from Bhimdatta Municipality-7, Haldukhal, says that the new faces will fulfill many of the expectations from the old. 

‘In the Chowk Chowk, it is heard that this time, new faces should be given a chance rather than the old ones,’ he said, ‘That is why now we are saying that we should find an alternative to the old ones. We have been watching the old ones for a long time, hoping that they will change something, but that did not happen.’ Tara Dutta Joshi, 55, also from Haldukhal, argues that we will vote only for those who understand us. ‘Now, new faces should come, we are tired of voting for the old ones, we hope that the new ones will do something,’ he says. 

Congress leader Lekhak has been elected three times from Kanchanpur-3. Lekhak, who was first elected in 2056, was then elected as a member of the Constituent Assembly through proportional representation in the first Constituent Assembly election in 2064. At that time, Sher Bahadur Deuba from the Congress won the election from Kanchanpur-4 (currently 3) along with Dadeldhura. After Deuba left, Maoist Harish Thakulla was elected in the by-election. 

Lekhak won the second Constituent Assembly election in 2070. In the 2074 House of Representatives election, Lekhak narrowly lost to UML's Deepak Prakash Bhatta. Bhatta had secured 26,364 votes while Lekhak got 26,106 votes. In the 2079 election, Lekhak won again from the same constituency. He defeated UML's Nirudevi Pal by a wide margin. Lekhak got 30,575 votes while Pal got 18,485 votes.

I will not say anything about not getting a ticket, I will soon go to the people, meet them, join hands, if you ask what happened, the party decided, and I will say the same thing happened: Ramesh Lekhak, Congress leader

This time too, Lekhak was recommended as the candidate for Kanchanpur-3 from the district. But he did not get a ticket. Hari Prasad Bohara of the Congress is the candidate in that constituency. Bohra is the former district president of the party. He is contesting the election for the first time. Bhatta from UML, Man Bahadur Sunar from CPN, and Gyanendra Mahata from Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh are in the fray as candidates. There are 17 candidates, including 3 independents, in the constituency. 

Sunar has been nominated by the CPN for the first time as a candidate for the House of Representatives from the main party from the Dodhara Chandani constituency across Mahakali. The other candidates are from Mahakali. Sunar is a former member of the Sudurpaschim Provincial Assembly. Sunar, who was elected as a provincial assembly member from the then Maoist Center, was also the Minister of State for Land, Agriculture and Cooperatives. UML candidate Bhatta is known as an intellectual leader. He is a security expert with a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University in India. He was first elected as an MP from the Left Alliance in 2074. 

This constituency includes Bhimdutta Municipality, Ward No. 8 of Dodhara Chandani and Bedkot Municipality. There are 103,087 voters in this area, including 50,487 men and 52,600 women, for the upcoming House of Representatives elections. 18-year-old Manish Bhatt of Bedkot Municipality-7 is preparing to vote for the first time. That is why he is wondering when the elections will come. ‘Now, youth like us must find an alternative to the old candidate. There must be a new face, not the same face in all areas of Kanchanpur,’ he says when met at Mahendranagar Bazaar. ‘Road infrastructure is a development that is being done, it should be corruption-free and peace, security, and tranquility should also be a matter of peace.’ 

He is studying BLLB in the first year at Sudurpaschim University and says he is in favor of change. ‘When the development work is good, we compete to take credit for it, but when there is a big accident in the Gen-G movement, can I say no?’ he asks, ‘Whoever was in the government should take responsibility.’ 

Karishma Nath, 22, of Mahendranagar, says that the Gen-G generation should now come forward. ‘There is no employment in the country, there is no salary facility according to the job,’ she says, ‘which is why there is a compulsion to go abroad, we should create an environment to live here.’ She suggests that the leadership that will be elected through the election should pay attention to this. Alina DC, 21, from Mahendranagar Bazaar, says that there should be a leadership that will end corruption. ‘Whoever comes, let it be a good leadership, let it be a leadership that will not send Gen-G abroad,’ she says.

Narad Pandey, 60, a local brick merchant, says that there should be a purge in the old parties. ‘It is not that the old ones spoiled it, the new ones jumped in,’ he says, ‘The Gen-G movement happened while the writer was in office, he should take responsibility for it.’ But she understands that the writer is a decent person who is not involved in corruption. ‘The perspective of looking at him after winning the election is one and the perspective of looking at him after the Gen-G movement is different,’ he said. 

Kanchanpur in the Far West is the most developed place, says Prit Bahadur Bista, an associate professor at Sudurpaschim University. ‘Regionalism, regionalism and political continuity have a big impact in the Far West,’ he said, ‘The political base of the old party is at the bottom. The first test of the new party is taking place in this area.’