When announcing his candidacy for the Pokhara Metropolitan City Mayor's post in 2079 with the election symbol of a stick, Ganes Poudel (Khadakraj Poudel), the author of the novel 'Paitala', had said, 'There is a battle beyond victory and defeat. I am not a fighter to win, I am a person who has risen to give ideas.'

He did not win the election after starting the Ateri campaign and running as an independent candidate for the post of mayor to give ideas for alternative politics. However, he joined the National Independent Party (RASP) that was born in the same era with Balendra Shah and is now on his way to parliament.

Poudel, a central member of the RSP, has won from Kaski Constituency No. 1 by a huge margin of more than 28,000 votes. This 46-year-old activist, who sometimes speaks in the classroom and sometimes on the streets, has now got the opportunity to speak in the parliament chamber. The man who, by his own admission, first entered the electoral fray ‘not to win, but to give ideas’, has emerged today as a representative of the country’s largest parliamentary power. And this journey is as much literary as it is political.

He was a candidate in Balen Kathmandu when he ran for mayor of Pokhara Metropolitan City. He has his own analysis of the political landscape of the country at that time.

‘The Wise Common Party was dying, the alternative political movement was at its peak, and the public’s distaste for the Congress-UML-Maoist was at its peak,’ he recalled. ‘I had started the Ateri campaign as a means of expressing this dissatisfaction in a meaningful way.’ This campaign, interpreted as civil disobedience at the citizen level against the abuse of power and authority, carried a message to inspire people to vote according to their conscience rather than following the traditional parties.

When Balendra Shah won the mayoral election of Kathmandu, Poudel campaigned for independent candidates from Humla to Kathmandu, ran campaigns and helped shape public opinion. He claims that the National Independent Party was born on that foundation.

He is not just a politician from Pokhara-14 Majheripatan. He is a writer, teacher and social activist at the same time. After graduating in English literature and completing his MBA from Pokhara University, he spent more than a decade and a half in the teaching profession. This writer, who introduced the ‘absurd’ consciousness to Nepali literature through experimental novels like ‘Paitala’, has linked literary discourse with political criticism.

Known as the visionary of the campaign to develop a reading culture through the ‘Random Readers Society’ in Pokhara, he conveyed his political philosophy of ‘winning with thought, enduring with character’ to the public in the style of literature. Criticism of traditional political culture continues to appear with equal intensity in his writings and speeches. This characteristic makes him different from other politicians.

His victory from Kaski-1 in the 2082 House of Representatives election was no ordinary victory. He won by a huge margin of 28,669 votes over his nearest rival, Tilak Ranabhat of the Nepali Congress. This figure speaks for itself as to how strongly the public opinion of Pokhara stood in favor of ‘alternative politics’.

Out of 116,878 voters, 70,150 votes were cast in this constituency. Out of that, 39,883, or about 59 percent of the total votes cast, were in favor of Poudel. Ranabhat of the Nepali Congress got 11,214 votes. Bain Bahadur Adhikari Chhetri of the UML came in third with 10,429 votes and Rajkaji Gurung of the Nepali Congress got 2,479 votes. Here, 16 parties and one independent were in the fray.

His political journey has not been a straight line. In the course of his search for alternative politics, he also joined Baburam Bhattarai for some time. But that campaign did not progress in the long term. His relationship with senior RSVP leader Balendra Shah is old and deep. Both of them had dreamed of alternative politics together. Although their circumstances were different. But from that seed, the National Independent Party sprouted. He has now reached Parliament on the ticket of the same party. ‘The National Independent Party has arisen on the basis of our campaign. A political course has been formed,’ he had said after the RSVP emerged in the previous election, ‘That is why I am a successful politician. I am not a loser, I am a winner.’

After the victory was confirmed, his first statement made public was quite balanced and full of responsibility. Neither excessive enthusiasm nor unnecessary promises. He said, ‘I will do what I can, if I can’t, I will say I can’t.’ This simple confession seems to have come from the pen of a writer who knows the weight of words.

He has opposed the abolition of federalism and has positioned himself in favor of restructuring it to be economical and communicative with the people. Connecting the local level to the national level and documenting the aspirations of the Gen-G movement at the policy level have been made public as his priorities.