Recently, there has been a strong public outcry that the old parties have not been able to do anything, and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is keen to take advantage of this.
What you should know
The National Independent Party (NIP) has presented a challenge in Surkhet-2, where the Congress and UML have been winning alternately for years. The area, which is the capital of Karnali Province, has been a competition between the two major parties of the country since 2048. It is estimated that the NIP can win this time in an area where the organization of the Congress and the UML is strong.
This is because the NIP has been placed in an area where it can win based on the votes it received in the direct and proportional elections in the 2079 elections. The NIP seems to be using a strategy to attract votes by saying that its party has come as an alternative amid accusations that the old parties have not been able to work. Looking at the election atmosphere, the organizational status of the major parties, and past election results, the main competition in this area is between the Congress, UML, NIP, and NCP.
Local businessman Chintamani Sharma said that if the Congress and the UML fail to protect their organizational votes, the NIP will benefit. Recently, there has been a strong anger among the people that the old parties have not been able to do anything. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is trying to take advantage of this. The decisive voters of Surkhet-2 are in Birendranagar. Out of the 17 candidates of Surkhet-2, 16 are from Birendranagar.
Except for Kaviram Puri of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), all the candidates are from Birendranagar. This time, all the new faces are in the election fray. Narayan Koirala of the Congress, Kulmani Devkota of the UML, Jhak Bahadur Malla (Sudeep) of the Nepali Communist Party (NCP), Ramesh Sapkota of the RSS, and Puri of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) are 17 people in the fray.
The Congress candidate Koirala is the chairman of Radio Bheri in Birendranagar. He has also served as the chairman of the Surkhet Valley Development Committee. He has experience of holding the responsibility of the Congress regional president. UML candidate Devkota has been in a leadership role in the Surkhet Valley Drinking Water Consumers' Association for a long time. Devkota is the party's district president. NCP candidate Malla is a central member of the party. He was active in the Maoist movement since the armed conflict.
RSP candidate Sapkota is a transport businessman. He is also the president of Kankrebihar Yatayat Pvt. Ltd. Earlier, he was the secretary of the Congress's Birendranagar Municipal Committee. He is currently the district president of RSP. RPP candidate Puri is the party's district president.
If RSP candidate Sapkota, who has a Congress background, can save the organizational votes by cutting the Congress votes, it is certain that UML will benefit. However, it has been analyzed that if Sapkota cannot cut the Congress votes, it will benefit Congress again. This time, the votes cut by RSP will be from both Congress and UML.
Hridayram Thani won the last election in the Congress-Maoist alliance. UML's Amrit Bahadur Budhachhetri was defeated by him. Thani got 34,625 votes, while UML's Budhachhetri got 29,558 votes. Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh's Tek Bahadur Chunara got 4,601 votes.
In proportional representation, UML got 25,086 votes, while Congress got 23,100 proportional votes, while the then CPN-Maoist Center had 10,059 proportional votes. Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh's proportional votes were 6,146. RPP's 3,975. Surkhet-2 includes wards 1 to 14 of Birendranagar and Barahatal Rural Municipality, Panchpuri Municipality and Chaukune Rural Municipality in the western region.
