RUPANDEHI: Nepali Congress candidate Drig Narayan Pandeya has won the National Assembly by-election of Lumbini Province.
Pandeya, who has the support of the CPN (Maoist Centre), Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) and Rastriya Janamorcha, has defeated the ruling CPN (UML) candidate Chandra Bahadur Khadka.
Pandeya received 42 votes for the State Assembly and 118 votes for the local level. According to the Provincial Election Office, Khadka garnered 40 votes from the State Assembly and 94 votes from the local level.
In the election, 296 votes were cast, including 83 members of the State Assembly and 213 local level chiefs and deputy chiefs. One each of the votes of the State Assembly and local level were invalid.
Driga Narayan Pandeya had recently resigned from the Lumbini State Assembly and joined the Nepali Congress. He was the joint candidate of the CPN (Maoist Centre), Upendra Yadav faction of Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) and Rastriya Janamorcha. Khadka was on the side of Mahantha Thakur faction of JSP.
The National Assembly member Chandra Bahadur Khadka had resigned after leaving the UCPN (Maoist Centre). The UCPN (Maoist Centre) had expelled Khadka from the party and removed from the National Assembly member. So, the seat fell vacant. Khadka was the UML candidate in the by-election while Pandeya was the Congress candidate in support of the opposition alliance.
It’s a second consecutive defeat for the ruling CPN (UML). Earlier, Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa was defeated at the Bagmati Province by-election for the National Assembly. Thapa was the KP Oli-led CPN (UML) candidate there. He had also left the UCPN (Maoist Centre) and joined the CPN (UML).
