By Narayani Rajaure/Dipak Bohara
Dang: Women politicians are contesting the House of Representatives (HoR) and provincial assembly elections against the male ‘heavyweight’ politicians in Dang district.
In constituency no. 1 of the HoR, CPN (Unified Socialist)’s Metmani Chaudhary is in the fray with support from the ruling alliance against Shanta Chaudhary of CPN (UML).
Metmani is the sitting Minister for Urban Development. In Dang constituency no. 2, CPN (Maoist Centre)’s standing committee Rekha Sharma, with support from the left-democratic alliance, is competing against the CPN (UML) general secretary Shankar Pokharel.
Likewise, Dipak Giri of Nepali Congress and CPN (UML)’s Komal Oli are the two frontrunners in this elections. Giri has the support of the left-democratic alliance.
Leader Metmani is contesting the HoR elections for the second time after his victory. In the previous elections, he was elected by defeating NC’s Sushila Chaudhary.
In his last victory, Metmani was the candidate of left alliance. Served as the lawmaker for the first time under the proportional electoral system in the first Constituent Assembly elections in 2064 BS, Shanta was also elected the HoR member under the proportional electoral system in the last elections held in 2074 BS.
UML leader Shanta was the whip of UML’s parliamentary party. In the second Constituent Assembly elections held in 2070 BS, Shanta was defeated from NC’s Sushila under the first-past-the-post electoral system from Dang constituency no. 2.
In the past, Deukhuri area was in the constituency no. 2 but entire Deukhuri and some wards of Ghorai Sub-Metropolitan City and Bangalachuli Rural Municipality are made constituency no. 1 after the federalism in place.
In the recent local levels, the left-democratic alliance has two-fold votes against the CPN (UML) in this constituency, signaling that Metmani is in a comfort zone to win the poll.
He claims that he will garner all the voters of the left-democratic alliance.
“This alliance is not merely to win an election but was formed in a special context to safeguard the country. So, the vote of the alliance will not go to other candidates. We will win,” Metmani claimed.
With majority of voters from Tharu community, all eyes are on the Tharu voters here. Shanta, who worked as the Kamalari in the past, has expected more votes from Tharu community.
Likewise, former central committee member of UML Ganga Chaudhary is vying from this same constituency from a new political party, Hamro Nepali Party, by recently quitting UML.
Ganga served as the lawmakers twice under the proportional electoral system. Similarly, Rekha Sharma of the Maoist Centre and Shankar Pokharel of the CPN (UML) are competing for their victory.
Sharma was the HoR member under the proportional electoral system from 2070 BS and 2074 BS elections.
Sharma also served as the Minister for General Administration in 2072 BS. This is her first contest for the first-past-the-post electoral system. So far, Pokharel has contested polls several times since 2051 BS. But, he won the polls only in HoR elections held in 2051 and provincial assembly polls in 2074 BS.
UML’s Pokharel was defeated from NC’s Krishna Kishore Ghimire in 2056 BS and Buddhiram Bhandari in 2070 BS. He was the lawmaker under the proportional electoral system in the first CA elections in 2064 BS.
In Dang constituency no. 2, tough competition is projected between the former Chief Minister of Lumbini Province Pokharel and left-democratic alliance’s Sharma. However, based on the analysis of the local level elections, left-democratic alliance holds more votes than the CPN (UML).
Furthermore, NC’s Dipak Giri, an experienced politician, from the left-democratic alliance and UML’s Komal Oli are vying.
Oli was the national assembly member from UML since 2074 BS. Oli is competing the polls for the first time while Giri vied the polls several times. RSS
