KATHMANDU, March 7: As the vote count from the House of Representatives (HoR) election held on Thursday nears completion, a majority of office bearers of the CPN-UML—including party chairperson and former prime minister KP Sharma Oli—are set to remain outside the federal parliament for the next five years.
Out of the party’s 19 office bearers, 11 contested the election under the first-past-the-post system. However, with several already defeated and others trailing far behind in the vote count, most appear unlikely to secure seats in the HoR.
Chairperson KP Sharma Oli, who contested from Jhapa-5, has been defeated by Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP).
Chairman Oli announces names of UML's office-bearers, Ishwor Po...
Among the party’s vice-chairpersons, Bishnu Poudel contested from Rupandehi-2, Prithvi Subba Gurung from Lamjung and Gokarna Bista from Gulmi-2. Poudel lost to Sulav Kharel of the RSP in Rupandehi-2, while Bista was defeated by Govind Panthi of the same party in Gulmi-2. In Lamjung, Gurung also lost to Dharma Raj KC of the RSP.
UML General Secretary Shankar Pokharel, who contested from Dang-2, has been defeated by Bipin Acharya of the RSP.
Similarly, Deputy General Secretaries Raghubir Mahaseth and Lekhraj Bhatta contested from Dhanusha-4 and Kailali-4, respectively. Mahaseth has been defeated by Raj Kishor Mahato of the RSP, while Bhatta is trailing far behind in Kailali-4, leaving him with little chance of reversing the result.
Among the party’s secretaries, Mahesh Basnet (Bhaktapur-2), Rajan Bhattarai (Kathmandu-4) and Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal (Tehrathum) have been defeated. Another secretary, Sherdhan Rai, who contested from Bhojpur, is trailing by around 1,000 votes as counting continues.
In Tehrathum, Dhakal lost to a candidate from the Nepali Congress, while several other UML office bearers were defeated by candidates from the RSP.
Some senior UML leaders did not contest the HoR election. Vice-President Ram Bahadur Thapa ‘Badal’ is included in the party’s proportional representation list, while another vice-chairman Raghuji Pant did not contest the polls. Secretary Yamlal Kandel is currently serving as chief minister of Karnali Province, while Padma Aryal opted to remain on the proportional list.
Similarly, Chhabi Lal Bishwakarma and Khagraj Adhikari did not contest the election. Another party secretary, Hikmat Karki, who is serving as chief minister of Koshi Province, also did not participate in the HoR race.
