As the election date for the House of Representatives approaches, the door-to-door campaign of the candidates for Kavre Constituency No. 1 has also been completed. 18 candidates are in the fray in Kavre 1, which is considered the most remote of the two constituencies in the district. All the candidates who have filed their candidacies in this constituency are new candidates.

Kavre Constituency No. 1 includes 7 out of 12 wards of Panauti Municipality, all wards of Namobuddha Municipality, Temal, Roshi, Mahabharat, Chaurideurali and Khanikhola Rural Municipality, and ward no. 6 of Bethanchok Rural Municipality. Wards no. 8 to 12 out of 12 wards of Dhulikhel Municipality fall in this constituency. Although Panauti, Namobuddha, Temal, and Bethanchok are relatively accessible, Mahabharat and Khanikhola Rural Municipality, which are the most remote in the district, fall in this constituency.

Although the candidates are new, the expectations of the voters in this constituency are the same. Voters who were frustrated by the road being navigable for only 6 months have reiterated the same expectation this time too – they want a road that is navigable all year round.

Due to the lack of infrastructure development, the locals here have been facing many problems in their daily lives. Due to the lack of paved roads and bridges in many settlements of Khanikhola and Mahabharat Rural Municipality, the locals have been forced to suffer a lot during the rainy season. The situation of patients, pregnant women and new mothers not being able to reach the health institutions on time is repeated time and again, putting their lives at risk. Even for simple medical treatment, they have to walk for hours, and in serious cases, they have to be carried on stretchers or on their heads.

Due to the lack of a good road network, bridges and well-equipped health institutions in Mahabharat Rural Municipality, 16,069 residents of this municipality are affected. Transport does not operate here during the rainy season. According to Kanchhalal Jimba, the chairman of the rural municipality, the Pinthali-Rajbas-Charkilla-Devitar road section connecting Mahabharat is blocked due to landslides during the rainy season. He informed that transportation can be operated during the winter.

He said that in case of emergency and treatment at the local health post, there is a compulsion to rescue by helicopter.

Like Mahabharat Rural Municipality, Khanikhola is known as another remote area of ​​Kavre geographically. Due to the lack of infrastructure including roads, bridges, health education, etc., the 12,201 citizens here are forced to suffer a lot even to get basic services. According to Indra Bahadur Thing, chairman of Khanikhola Rural Municipality, due to the lack of transportation even during the rainy season, if there are health problems, the disabled, the elderly, pregnant women, and pregnant women have to walk for hours on foot, carry them on stretchers, or carry them on their backs to the health institution for treatment.

Due to lack of health, education and employment opportunities, most of the youth of these two municipalities have been forced to migrate to foreign employment or cities. In the long term, unless roads, bridges and well-equipped health institutions are built, it seems that the residents of Khanikhola and Mahabharat will continue to live a risky life. In the past elections, voters in this region demanded that candidates build infrastructure for smooth transportation. This time too, the candidates say that their expectations are infrastructure like roads and drinking water.

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As the campaign for the House of Representatives elections enters its final phase, Gunaraj Moktan, the candidate for Kavre Constituency No. 1 of the Nepali Congress, has said that his election agenda is focused on development, infrastructure expansion and rural income growth. He said that the voters in this region are very excited and optimistic. According to him, after the Congress won the previous election, it was able to bring a significant budget to the region and the good work of the Congress leadership at the local level has increased the confidence of the voters in the party.

According to him, Kavre-1 is known as a geographically remote area. Infrastructure expansion is challenging, especially in the settlements of Dandapari, Kosipari, Roshi and Mahabharat areas. ‘There has been development compared to yesterday,’ he said, ‘but there has not been sufficient development compared to the needs.’ According to him, due to scattered settlements, settlements spread in groups of two to four houses and difficult geography, huge investment is required to provide roads, electricity and drinking water. ‘It is expensive to provide infrastructure,’ he said, ‘that is why it has not been possible to do as much as is needed.’

When questions were raised about the lack of motorable roads in rural areas for 12 months and the delay in the construction of concrete bridges, he cited the cumbersome system of the implementation process as the main reason. ‘Budget is allocated for development, but the implementation process is very complex,’ he said, ‘methods and procedures should be reviewed to make it easier.’ He also emphasized the need to allocate budget by prioritizing remote areas. He said that a long-term solution is needed regarding the situation of having to charter helicopters to rescue emergency patients or pregnant women in remote settlements. ‘If we can expand the road network and connect directly to the district headquarters, helicopter dependence will decrease,’ he said, ‘connecting a paved road network is our first priority.’

He said that along with physical infrastructure, production and market management should be improved. ‘Even if beautiful houses are built in the village, if income does not increase, people will not stay,’ he said, ‘If we can break the long chain between producers and consumers and connect them directly, farmers will get fair prices.’ According to him, the main agenda is to maintain irrigation, drinking water, market access for agricultural products and good governance.

The area where the alliance had an influence in the previous elections is now contested by the parties alone. When asked about the challenges, Moktan claimed that the organization of the Congress is strong, that development budget has been allocated to each ward in the previous years, and that the transformation that has taken place in the party has created a positive atmosphere. ‘We are in a comfortable position based on the organization, development work, transformation within the party, and the ability of the candidates,’ he said.

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Dinanath Gautam of Kavre Constituency No. 1 of the Nepali Communist Party said that the enthusiasm of the voters is remarkable as the door-to-door campaign in Constituency No. 1 is entering its final phase. He said that they have reached the voters with a clear agenda to solve the problems that have been recurring in this area for years, such as the lack of motorable roads for 12 months, drinking water, health, and agricultural produce marketing.

According to him, there has been an imbalance in the state’s policy priorities in this area. ‘The approach to remote and developed areas is different,’ he said, ‘there is inequality in access and resource distribution.’ However, he admitted that some plans had been started in the previous term and some were incomplete, and said that those plans would be completed gradually and new needs would also be addressed.’

‘Infrastructure development along with roads is the first priority in this area,’ he said, ‘after that, we plan to emphasize commercialization and production by creating pocket areas in the drinking water and agricultural sectors.’ He also expressed his commitment to promoting employment-oriented and technical education in the education sector and expanding services with skilled manpower in the health sector. He said that the government policy of operating a minimum of 10-bed hospital in each municipality would be vigorously pursued.’

According to him, I have seen a strong foundation for ensuring victory in the election through direct relations with the people and socio-political activism for a long time. ‘The trust and confidence shown by the people is the basis for our victory,’ he said. He expressed confidence that the party's ideas and action plan are clear even though he is new, stating that he can deliver results.

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As the election atmosphere in Kavre Constituency No. 1 intensifies, Madhu Kumar Chaulagain, the candidate of the Rastriya Swatantra Party Kavre Constituency No. 1, has said that voters are showing both enthusiasm and disappointment. According to him, trust and enthusiasm have been shown towards us because we are new candidates. But there are also complaints from voters that representatives who won in the past have not returned to the people.

He said that problems could not be identified and priorities determined as the past representatives were not in constant contact with the people. He said that investment was scattered and effective results were not achieved because plans were not selected based on justification and need. He said that if appropriate infrastructure is built according to geography, the problems of remote areas can be solved in the long term.

Stating that his main agenda is 'change in the condition of the people', he said, 'Easy transportation, collection, processing and packaging of herbs, promotion of coffee, ginger, turmeric and other cash crops have been prioritized in the Khanekhola-Mahabharat region, and a plan has also been put forward to operate oilseed crop production and industries based on it in the Sipali region.'

Similarly, he is committed to creating employment through maximum utilization of local resources from Chaurideurali to the Mahabharata region. He said that a practical education system linked to production should be implemented towards improving education. He believes that income can be increased by promoting tourism through the protection and promotion of religious and cultural heritage in the Panauti region. He pointed out that attention should also be paid to the protection and promotion of the Namobuddha region, which holds historical importance.

17 candidates are in the race in this region. He claims that he has a strong basis for winning as he has moved forward with the people's agenda amidst the competition and has placed health, education and employment issues at the center. Rejecting the idea that the Rastriya Swatantra Party is weak because it is new, he claimed that the party is in the forefront in Kavre-1. He requested not to make a comment that the Rashtriya Swatantra Party is weak.

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Ami Tamang, the candidate of the Nepal Communist Party (UML) for Kavre Constituency No. 1, who is busy with a door-to-door campaign in the final phase of the election campaign, said that there is a lot of enthusiasm among the voters. According to him, he is gaining support from the people due to the attraction and trust in the party.

According to him, as the election on the 21st approaches, the enthusiasm among the voters has increased. ‘The people have seen UML as a party that stands in favor of the country and the people,’ he said, ‘This time the desire for change has been clearly seen.’ According to him, there are widespread complaints that infrastructure development has not been carried out as expected, especially in the Dandapari area, Kosipari and Roshi settlements. People’s lives are affected because basic services such as roads, drinking water, irrigation and health are still not organized.’

He argued that the responsibility of development should be given to UML this time, saying that the candidates elected in the previous elections in this area had not made significant progress in infrastructure development. According to him, the parties that had won on the basis of alliances in the past have not been able to do the expected work and that is why voters are looking for alternatives this time. In this area, where the alliance party has been winning in the previous two elections, this time the parties are competing alone. He said that even if he has to face the elections alone without an alliance this time, he does not see much of a challenge.

Alliance is the only one to win the previous two elections: This time it will be a solo competition

With the promulgation of the new constitution, Kavre Constituency No. 1, which became two constituencies for the House of Representatives, had to rely on alliances for candidates who had previously won both elections. There are currently 161,100 voters in this constituency. In the 2074 BS election for the House of Representatives, an alliance was formed between the CPN-UML and the then CPN-Maoist Center. Ganga Bahadur Tamang of the CPN-Maoist Center, the candidate of the alliance, defeated the Congress candidate Tirtha Bahadur Lama by a margin of 5,266 votes. Tamang got 44,631 votes, while Lama got 39,605 votes. In the 2079 BS election, an alliance was formed between the Nepali Congress and the CPN-Maoist Center.

Suryaman Dong, who became a candidate from the alliance, defeated the CPN-UML candidate Resham Bahadur Lama by a margin of 3,964 votes. Dong got 34,512 votes, while Lama got 30,548 votes. In this area, Basunarayan Shrestha of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) got 8,697 votes. Since there is no alliance this time, the candidates of the three main parties are pursuing a strategy to protect the votes received by the party in the proportional representation and to win the votes of other parties in their favor. The RSS, on the other hand, is confident that the public vote has been attracted to them.