KATHMANDU, Dec 27: Pushpa Kamal Dahal, coordinator of the Nepali Communist Party (NCP), was elected to the House of Representatives (HoR) from Gorkha Constituency-2 in the 2022 general election. Backed by a five-party alliance led by the Nepali Congress (NC), Dahal secured 26,103 votes, defeating Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) candidate Kabindra Burlakoti, who garnered 12,336 votes.
However, if the HoR election scheduled for March 5 proceeds as planned, it has become increasingly clear that Dahal will not contest again from Gorkha-2. This likelihood is already reflected in the party’s candidate recommendation process.
On Thursday, the NCP’s Gorkha district committee submitted its list of recommended candidates to the central committee—but Dahal’s name was conspicuously absent from the Gorkha-2 list. Instead, the constituency saw the recommendation of senior leader Narayankaji Shrestha. Other names recommended from Gorkha-2 included Lekhnath Neupane, Hitraj Pandey, Sanumaya Basnet, and Anish Aryal.
By contrast, the party has recommended Dahal’s name from Gorkha-1. Other leaders recommended from that constituency include Hariraj Adhikari, Jagannath Khanal, Shobha Lamichhane, and Sagar Shrestha.
According to a party leader, Dahal was not recommended from Gorkha-2 because he himself was unwilling to contest from the seat. “If the coordinator wanted to run from there again, how could his name not be recommended?” the leader asked rhetorically.
In effect, Dahal appears to be continuing a long-established political pattern—one often described by critics through the Nepali proverb ‘Aghi badhdai, paila metdai’ (moving forward while erasing one’s footprints). His repeated shifts from one constituency to another have long drawn such comparisons.
PUTTING SMALL BUSINESS ON THE MAP
In the 2008 Constituent Assembly election, Dahal contested from Kathmandu-10 and Rolpa-2, winning both seats. In the 2013 Constituent Assembly election, he again contested from Kathmandu-10—making it the only constituency he has contested twice—only to suffer defeat at the hands of NC candidate Rajendra KC.
In the same election, Dahal also ran from Siraha-3, where he won by a narrow margin, though the victory was widely questioned by critics. He did not return to Siraha in subsequent elections.
Ahead of the 2017 elections, Dahal allied with the NC during the local polls, successfully securing the election of his daughter, Renu Dahal, as mayor of Bharatpur Metropolitan City in his home district of Chitwan. That alliance later paved the way for a broader left alliance with the CPN-UML ahead of the parliamentary elections, with party unification floated as a long-term objective.
Riding on that alliance, Dahal contested and won from Chitwan-3. But by 2022, even Chitwan appeared politically risky for him. To avert a possible defeat, he shifted to Gorkha-2, widely seen at the time as a safer electoral seat.
Gorkha-2 had long been the stronghold of former Maoist leader Dr Baburam Bhattarai, who won every election there between 2008 and 2017. In 2022, Bhattarai vacated the seat for Dahal. In return, Bhattarai fielded his daughter, Manushi Yami, from Kathmandu-7, using the Maoist Centre’s election symbol with backing from the NC and the then CPN (Unified Socialist). Manushi, however, lost the election.
With the combined support of the NC, Unified Socialist, and Bhattarai himself, Dahal won Gorkha-2. At the time, he had also assured Bhattarai of the possibility of party unification.
But soon after securing victory—and without consolidating relations with his allies—Dahal sidelined both the NC and Bhattarai, instead aligning with the UML and the RSP to ascend to the post of prime minister. He made no visible effort to strengthen ties with Bhattarai and is alleged to have encouraged leaders, including Mahindra Raya Yadav, to defect from Bhattarai’s party, ultimately triggering a split. Since then, Bhattarai has remained deeply resentful of Dahal.
Now, Bhattarai himself is keen to contest again from Gorkha-2. This time, however, he is unlikely to receive NC backing. Meanwhile, RSP candidate Burlakoti—who secured a substantial vote share in 2022—remains a formidable challenger.
Faced with these evolving dynamics, party sources say Dahal no longer views Gorkha-2 as a safe constituency and has begun searching for alternatives. Where he will ultimately contest from remains uncertain.
Constituencies that recommended Dahal as a candidate
According to party sources, the candidate recommendation process is expected to continue through Friday. So far, Dahal’s name has been recommended from Nuwakot-1, Sindhuli-2, Ramechhap, and Mahottari-4.
He has also been recommended from Rolpa, Rukum East, and Kailali-3. There is additionally a possibility of his name being proposed from Kavrepalanchok and Kaski-1.
Among these options, Nuwakot-1 and Sindhuli-2 are considered Dahal’s strongest prospects. Both constituencies were won by the CPN (Maoist Centre) in 2022. In Nuwakot-1, current NCP leader Hitman Tamang secured victory, while Rajan Dahal won Sindhuli-2 by a relatively comfortable margin.
Beyond this, Dahal appears hopeful about his party’s recent resurgence in Madhesh Province. If no other option proves viable, party insiders say he may return to his traditional strongholds of Rolpa and Rukum in search of electoral security.
Even now, sources say, Dahal is actively exploring new electoral alliances as he positions himself for the next election.
