Congress President Gagan Thapa has recently moved to Sarlahi. Even if he has to go elsewhere to address election meetings, he arrives in Sarlahi to stay overnight. He visits houses until the time is up. Thapa has started using a helicopter so that he does not leave his area and can also address meetings in other districts.

Thapa, who had filed his candidacy for the House of Representatives seat in Sarlahi-4, was on a door-to-door basis until Friday morning. But in the afternoon, he boarded a helicopter to Butwal and addressed an election rally there. He then also attended rallies in Kapilvastu, Pokhara and Baglung. He arrived in Sarlahi in the evening.

Thapa had addressed election rallies in Surkhet and Nepalgunj on Thursday. He had been on a door-to-door basis in Sarlahi until late on Wednesday and had stayed in Kathmandu in the evening. From there, he reached Surkhet and reached Sarlahi in the evening after Nepalgunj.

Thapa is spending most of his time meeting voters after not seeing an easy win as promised by the party leaders and cadres who had been working hard to bring Sarlahi to the polls. ‘It was said that victory would come easily, that a little time would suffice,’ said a member of Thapa’s team. ‘After coming here, the situation seemed different. The party workers and voters did not respond positively to the person who called them.'

According to the member, initially, Thapa had planned to spend a little time in his constituency since he had the responsibility of winning the party's candidates across the country and spend the rest of the time elsewhere. The leaders who requested nomination from Sarlahi had said that seven days would be enough since the party's hold and organization were good. But when the situation changed, Thapa had to change his strategy. Now, his programs are being planned in such a way that he will reach the program from Sarlahi and return here again.

After realizing that the 'bell' has spread among the youth from urban areas to rural areas of Madhesh, Thapa has adopted a strategy of not leaving the constituency. Since 7th February, he has been in Sarlahi most of the time. He has already visited all 51 wards of his constituency. There are some scattered villages left.

Local leaders say that Thapa has prioritized door-to-door campaigning after understanding the psychology of voters who attach importance to meeting candidates and whether they come to seek votes. Congress leader Kaushal Kishore Singh says that voters want to see, meet and talk to candidates. ‘It seems that it is more effective when candidates interact directly with voters,’ he says, ‘The president has been going to address programs in other districts by arranging time.’

Thapa has been among the voters almost every day since he came to Sarlahi on 7 Falgun. Gagan has prioritized door-to-door canvassing after understanding the voters' psychology of seeing whether a candidate came to seek votes or not. Competing candidates from Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Amresh Kumar Singh, UML Amnish Kumar Yadav, Janmat Rakesh Kumar Mishra, JSP Rameshwar Ray Yadav to CPN Rajnish Ray are visiting each ward repeatedly. There are 39 candidates in this area. But the focus is on Congress’s Thapa, RSP’s Singh and UML’s Yadav. 

Singh of the RSVP is a leader who has won three consecutive times from this constituency. He was nominated to the restored interim parliament in 2063. Having been an MP continuously since 2070, he is facing the question of 'winning but not even picking up the phone' this time. Moreover, Singh seems to be feeling more challenged after Congress President Thapa became the candidate from this constituency.

Singh has taken the election symbol 'bell' as a strong support. He joined the RSVP only on the eve of his candidacy. He won the election as an independent candidate in 2079 BS. Before that, he was in the Congress.

Singh has been proactive in apologizing to angry voters. He is seen apologizing to voters without feeling embarrassed through public programs and in personal meetings. The residents of Godaita, Dhankaul and others are dissatisfied with Singh for moving the service center to Balara to house the area administration and other offices. Therefore, voters are questioning him on this issue.

Jugal Das of Godaita says that it is natural for the people who have sent him back after winning three times to question him. ‘Despite giving the slogan of new, Amreshji is the same as the old for the area. What did he do after winning three times? He did not even pick up the phone when I tried to contact him,’ he said. Das says that he is trying to lure the angry voters with his speech skills and soft behavior. ‘This time he was a weak candidate. But he is in competition because he has Balen (Balendra Shah) and Ghanti’s hand,’ he said, ‘Here there is a competition between the Congress and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.’

Singh is seeking votes by saying that senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Shah will become the Prime Minister after the elections. He has made the issue of a Madhesi son becoming the Prime Minister for the first time the main basis for seeking votes. In the past, after Mahant Thakur lost the election and was not given a ticket by the party, he has been considering himself the strongest candidate. But apart from the nationwide wave of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) this time, there are not many other supporting parties for his victory.

The RSSS does not have organizational power in this area. Those who supported him when he was in the Congress or when he was an independent candidate have returned to the Congress. While the process of leaving the JSP, UML and NCP in the area and joining the Congress is ongoing, no influential political cadre has joined the RSSS to support Singh. After winning, it has become challenging for him to have supporters and old friends who are irritated by not being in touch with the voters and to contest the election on the ticket of a party without an organization.

This is an area where UML has been considered weak since the past. In 2074 and 2079, there was no UML candidacy from here. In the Constituent Assembly of 2064 and 2070, the UML had fielded candidates. In the first Constituent Assembly, the UML candidate got only 1,665 votes and in the second, 291 votes.

This time, UML is in the news as the main competitor. The reason is former MP Shivpujan Ray Yadav. He has made his son Amanish a candidate from UML. Since the 2064 Constituent Assembly election, he has been making himself or his family members candidates. But from different parties.

After Shivpujan was found guilty in the diplomatic passport misuse case and could not be a candidate himself, he made his daughter Madhumala Kumari Yadav an independent candidate in the last election. At that time, he was affiliated with the Maoists. In the last election, Nagendra Kumar Ray of the Congress contested from this constituency from an alliance including the Congress, Maoists and LSP. Ray was defeated, and independent candidate Singh won.

It is alleged that Shivpujan helped Singh by not accepting the decision of the alliance and not withdrawing his daughter's candidacy. But Shivpujan has never been seen as friendly towards Singh. Despite not accepting the decision of the alliance, he was rewarded by the Maoists. And, his wife Meena became an MP from proportional representation.

Shivpujan claims that he has had to face everything from a murder case to a passport violation case because of Singh. Singh has been benefiting from his personal relationship with Pushpa Kamal Dahal since 2063. Even while in the Congress, the comment that he has benefited the most from Dahal is heard in this area. A supporter of the NCP in the area said that Singh has received the support of the Maoist 'supreme' in every election, from being nominated to the interim parliament to being made an MP. This time, it is understood that there has been a conflict in his relationship with Dahal.

Be it public programs or personal meetings - Amresh is seen apologizing to voters everywhere without feeling embarrassed. After Shivpujan joined the UML, Singh has not failed to try to get the support of the NCP, which is considered weak in the area. But the NCP leader claims that he has not received positive signals from Dahal. With Shivpujan's exit and some former Maoist cadres having joined other parties, the NCP is considered weak in the competition. 

Two characters who emerged in Sarlahi politics after the 2062/63 movement are Amresh Kumar Singh and Shivpujan Ray Yadav. Singh is also believed to have played a role in the 12-point agreement between the then seven parties and the Maoists who were in armed conflict. He was involved in the teaching profession and was considered close to Mahant Thakur and Krishna Sitaula in the Congress. Both have been competitors since the first Constituent Assembly election in 2064. Thakur had a single umbrella until the three elections before that. Thakur had won the 2048, 2051 and 2056 House of Representatives elections from the then Sarlahi-5.

Before the first Constituent Assembly election, the number of constituencies was increased from 205 to 240. The previous Sarlahi-5 became Sarlahi-6. Thakur ran as the Tamalopa president from that constituency in the first Constituent Assembly election. Singh was moved forward from the Congress to challenge him. At that time, the third character Shivpujan Ray Yadav came forward. The Madhesi Janadhikar Forum led by Upendra Yadav made him a candidate.

At that time, the Madhesh movement was in full swing. Thakur had a hold on the region as he had been winning elections continuously. Many expected him to win. However, Shivpujan won. He defeated Thakur by a margin of 272 votes. Yadav got 15,688 votes and Thakur got 15,416 votes. Singh, who was in third place, got 11,971 votes.

Less than three years after becoming a member of parliament, Yadav was accused of misuse of his diplomatic passport and was suspended. He was found guilty by the Supreme Court. Since then, he has not been able to enter parliament twice. But he remains in the news for politics. By the time he reached the second Constituent Assembly, he had changed parties. He became a candidate from the Tarai Madhesh Sadbhavana Party, which was split from the Thakur-led Tamlopa by Mahendra Rai Yadav. Thakur from Tamlopa and Singh from the Nepali Congress. Singh won.

The boundaries of constituencies 5 and 6 were changed in the 2074 elections, and the constituency became 4. By the time of the 2074 elections, Thakur left the constituency. He became a candidate from his ancestral place Mahottari-3. Yadav changed parties. He became a candidate from the Maoists. However, his candidacy was canceled at the last minute. The special court had found him guilty in the passport case. The case had reached the Supreme Court.

Yadav supported Tamlopa candidate Rakesh Mishra, saying that he was a victim of Singh's conspiracy. However, the election results were in Singh's favor. He won by defeating Mishra by a margin of 1,539 votes. In the previous local elections, Shivpujan's son Rajababu Yadav was elected as the chairman of Ramnagar rural municipality on a Maoist ticket. Yadav has been using every election to keep his vote bank safe and has been watching his politics for years. Local Upendra Mahato says.

The voice of change saying, "Let's choose the new, not the old," being of hill origin and being from a different district are the challenges before him. To get rid of the accusations, Thapa has given the slogan, "I am not a leader of Madhesh, I have come to become a son." It seems that he has problems in direct dialogue with voters due to language.   '8 to 10 thousand voters always seem to be in his favor. That is a big capital for those in politics. Fearing that the vote bank will break on the day he does not contest the election, Shivpujan has been using it in every election. His strategy is to keep his supporters with him if he wins, and if he does not win, he is cleverly succeeding in that. But Mahato claims that some of his supporters who have been voting for him and his family members have started to lose faith in Shivpujan's nepotism. 

There is a majority of Yadavs in this area. In terms of number, the largest number of voters are from the Yadav community. But the votes of the Yadav community are not concentrated in one place but are distributed. This time too, the candidates of the JSP and the NCP represent the Yadav community. The UML's lack of grip in this area, the division of votes among its own caste, and the accusation of nepotism are the challenges facing Shivapujan's son Amanish.

There is an attraction to Thapa because he rebelled in the party and became the president through a special general convention and is the proposed candidate for the prime minister. Congress workers have emphasized that voting for him means voting for the future prime minister. The party's strong organizational base is a good thing for him. The entry of leaders from JSP General Secretary Manish Kumar Mishra to Kedar Nandan Chaudhary and former mayor of Balara Municipality Abhay Kumar Singh into the Congress has added strength to him.