KATHMANDU, Jan 13: Yatish Ojha and Manish Khanal, members of the Nepal Gen-Z Front, are set to contest the upcoming election to the House of Representatives (HoR).
Both candidates, who are also lawyers, will contest the election with the support of the Gen-Z Front.
Ojha is preparing to contest from Jhapa Constituency No. 5, while Khanal plans to run from Nawalpur-2. However, if Balen Shah decides to contest from Jhapa-5, Ojha is prepared to shift his candidacy to another constituency within Jhapa.
Whose president, anyway?
According to Yujan Rajbhandari, organizational head of the Nepal Gen-Z Front, both Ojha and Khanal were at the forefront of the Gen-Z movement held on September 8 and 9 and have remained actively engaged in institutionalizing the movement’s agenda and implementing its mandate. He said they are now preparing to enter parliamentary politics.
Rajbhandari clarified that the Gen-Z Front is not a platform formed solely for party-based politics. He noted that while some members will continue street-level advocacy and civic pressure, others are interested in pursuing parliamentary politics. Some members, he added, are currently preparing to engage in politics at the local or provincial levels.
So far, Gen-Z leaders Purushottam Yadav and Tashi Lhazom have been included in the proportional representation list of the Rastriya Swatantra Party, while the political paths of other leaders remain unclear.
Meanwhile, Sudan Gurung, who emerged as a prominent leader following the Gen-Z movement, has already announced via Facebook that he will contest the election from Gorkha-1, though he has not yet disclosed the party under which he will run.
Gen-Z Front Coordinator Rakshya Bam, Province No. 1 Gen-Z Council Coordinator Uparjun Chamling and several other leaders are also under public pressure to enter the electoral race, but no formal decisions or announcements have been made so far.
