Palpa UML has recommended 10 names for the upcoming House of Representatives elections to be held on Falgun 21. UML Palpa Chairman Om Bahadur Gharti said that since Palpa, which has two constituencies, could not reach an agreement on a single name for both constituencies, the names of 6 people from Constituency 1 and 4 people from Constituency 2 were recommended.

The name of the party's central vice-chairman Bishnu Poudel has also been recommended from Palpa 2.

Why is Poudel's name in Palpa?

According to UML sources, some leaders took Poudel's name in the meeting to recommend candidates for the regional committee. They had even taken the initiative to recommend Poudel individually.

However, the names of many people, including young leader Thakur Gaire, who was elected as a member of the House of Representatives in 2079 BS, Constituent Assembly member Narayani Ghimire and leader Dr. Ram Bahadur Raut, could not be recommended individually after they were proposed in the meeting. According to regional chair Chiranjivi Pokharel, the names of those who came for recommendation in the meeting were sent to the district committee. Vice-chairman Poudel was not present in the UML meeting.

Some UML cadres have also assessed Poudel's recommendation as a ploy to not give tickets to the incoming member of the House of Representatives since young leader Gaire had filed his candidacy for the post of secretary from the Ishwor Pokharel panel in the 11th general convention. How was the name of UML Vice President Poudel, who has been contesting from Rupandehi since 2056, recommended?

Gaire, who had not had an opportunity for years, started his parliamentary journey in 2079 BS by defeating the then CPN-Socialist, Maoist and Congress candidate Som Prasad Pandey. A UML cadre said that various maneuvers are being carried out to prevent him from getting a ticket again. UML Vice President Poudel has also been recommended as a single candidate from Rupandehi-2.

It is also being speculated in political circles whether Poudel, who had won by a small margin in Rupandehi-2 before, is trying to change the constituency. Rupandehi's influential UML leader Vasudev Ghimire's announcement that he would leave UML a few days ago had created a stir.

News had also been published saying that he was preparing to become a candidate from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) against Bishnu Poudel. However, Ghimire later said that he was still in UML. Rupandehi-2 includes wards 1 to 13 of Butwal Sub-metropolitan City, wards 1-4 of Sainamaina Municipality, and wards 1-6 of Tilottama Municipality.

UML Vice-Chairman Poudel's parliamentary journey

UML Vice-Chairman Poudel started his parliamentary journey from Palpa in 2051 BS. Since then, he has become a minister eight times. In the 2051 BS election to the House of Representatives, there were 60,056 voters in the former Palpa constituency number 3. Out of which 34,373 votes were cast. UML's Bishnu Prasad Poudel won by getting 15,766 votes. His nearest rival, Hari Prasad Nepal of the Nepali Congress, was defeated by getting 12,697 votes.

After Poudel's parliamentary journey that started from Palpa, Poudel has held the Finance Ministry five times. He became the Finance Minister for the first time in Kartik 2072. He became the Finance Minister for the second time in Asoj 2077. He became the Finance Minister for the third time in Jestha 2078, the fourth time in Pus 2079 and the fifth time in Asaj 2081. Poudel first became the Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture from Chaitra 12, 2053 to Asoj 10, 2054. The voters here accuse him of completely forgetting the Palpa voters. Poudel, who won the election from Palpa for the first time, was fielded by UML from Rupandehi-3 in the 2056 parliamentary election. But he was defeated by Surya Prasad Pradhan of the Nepali Congress by a margin of about 600 votes.

After winning the election from Rupandehi in 2064, he became the Minister for the second time from Bhadra 5, 2065 to Jestha 7, 2066. He held the Ministry of Water Resources. Poudel was the Defense Minister in 2067. At that time, Poudel held the Ministry of Defense from Chaitra 3, 2067 to Bhadra 11, 2068. Poudel, who is considered to be a crooked politician, has repeatedly been getting opportunities to become a minister. Poudel has been the vice-president since the 10th and 11th general conventions of the UML. Poudel became more famous after defeating former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai from Rupandehi in the second Constituent Assembly elections of 2070 BS.

But in the 2079 BS elections, Poudel won the election by a margin of 1,370 votes against Ganesh Poudel of the National Independent Party. Voters in his constituency say that this is clear from his gradual decline in popularity. While Poudel of the UML won with 27,165 votes, Poudel of the Rashtriya Swatantra Party got 25,795 votes. Voters accused Poudel of exchanging the post of Finance Minister for the post of Butbal in the 2079 BS elections.

Political hustle and bustle

As the date of the upcoming House of Representatives elections on Falgun 21 is approaching, political parties in Palpa have been recommending candidates in a hurry. They have also recommended candidates with strategies such as who was strong in which constituency in the past and who will fill their seats now.

Palpa Congress, which was strong in the 2048 BS elections, could not maintain its results in all three constituencies in 2051 BS. However, it is not that UML was not strong in the same election.

There was not much difference in votes between the two parties. There was not much difference in votes between the competitors. In Palpa, UML used to be the competition between Congress. It seems that UML and Congress had competed in previous elections. Congress, which had won all three constituencies in 2048 BS, lost all its seats in 2051 BS.

In Palpa, where UML had won all three constituencies in 2056, UML won in 1 and 3 in the first Constituent Assembly of 2064. In Constituency 2, the then Maoists won.