Several top leaders of established parties fail to win seats

KATHMANDU: Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has secured a landslide victory in the House of Representatives (HoR) elections under the first-past-the-post electoral system, according to results now in their final stage. The elections were held on March 5.

The RSP contested the poll by fielding its senior leader and former mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Balendra Shah, as its prime ministerial candidate, attracting massive voter support.

As of now, the party has won 121 of the 165 seats elected under the direct system and is on course to secure a two-thirds majority in the next parliament. The RSP has also secured a large share of votes under the proportional representation system.

The Nepali Congress (NC) has won 17 seats, while the CPN (UML) and the Nepali Communist Party (NCP) have won seven seats each under the first-past-the-post system.

The NC, the largest party in the previous parliament, has suffered heavy losses and several of its top leaders were defeated. NC President Gagan Kumar Thapa, general secretaries Pradip Paudel and Gururaj Ghimire, and joint general secretaries Pharmullah Mansoor, Udaya Shumsher Rana and Prakash Rasaili Snehi lost the March 5 HoR election. Senior figures Shekhar Koirala, Bimalendra Nidhi, Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar, NP Saud, Mahalaxmi Upadhyay and others also failed to win their seats.

CPN (UML) leader KP Sharma Oli, vice chairs Gokarna Bista, Prithvi Subba Gurung and Bishnu Prasad Paudel, general secretary Shankar Pokhrel, assistant general secretaries Raghubir Mahaseth and Lekhraj Bhatta, and secretaries Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal, Serdhan Rai, Mahesh Basnet and Dr Rajan Bhattarai were defeated in their constituencies. UML senior leaders Ishwar Pokhrel, Devraj Ghimire and Pradip Kumar Gyawali were also defeated.

In the NCP, chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal won the seat in Rukum East, but other top leaders, including Madhav Kumar Nepal, Narayan Kaji Shrestha, Bhim Rawal, Mahindra Raya Yadav, Rajendra Prasad Pandey, Shakti Bahadur Basnet and Devendra Paudel were defeated, mostly by RSP candidates.

Rastriya Prajatantra Party Chairman Rajendra Lingden, senior vice chair Rabindra Mishra and senior leader Kamal Thapa also suffered defeat. Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party, which had continuously won in Bhaktapur, lost the polls there for the first time since 2048 BS. Likewise, all the top leaders and candidates of the Madhes-based parties, including Upendra Yadav, Rajendra Mahato, CK Raut and Prabhu Shah, were defeated.