100-year old Pokharel fighting election against Dahal, celebrates his birthday by sharing his plans

GORKHA, Oct 31: "There is no law in the country. There is no real leader and those who are called leaders have come to earn money,” said Tikadatta Pokharel, who is a candidate for the House of Representatives from Gorkha-2 in the upcoming election. "I have filed my candidacy to give rights to the people and to make our country a Hindu state again.”

Pokharel, who is from Gorkha Siranchok Rural Municipality-4 Choprak is contesting the election against Pushpa Kamal Dahal, chairman of the Maoist Center in the elections to be held on November 20. Along with him, 12 candidates are in the fray in Gorkha-2. Pokharel is the oldest candidate as he turned 100 years old on Monday.

On the occasion of his birthday, he told the neighbors and relatives who came to his house to wish him well, "Stone and clay knows what kind of person I am, people also know about those who are competing with me.”

Claiming that he will win, Pokharel said that he laid the foundation of the current development and education. He said that one of the reasons why he became a candidate was the fact that Nepali people could not enter Singha Darbar. “Being a Nepali, one cannot take their rights. Why can’t a Nepali enter the Singha Darbar with citizenship? How much injustice is this?” he said. “All doors should be open. As I could not bear such atrocities, I decided to run in the election.”

The 100 old Tikadatta Pokharel still looks agile. He has three sons and four daughters and he can speak clearly and can walk without the help of a cane. In 2051 BS he lost his wife. In the past, he was one of the advisors to Nepali Congress President BP Koirala.

In 2024/25 BS, he was elected as the Vice President of Choprak Village Panchayat unopposed. Pokharel, who was employed in the government army, went to join the liberation army with weapons. He said that he hid in India for some time and returned to Nepal after 2033 BS.

"I came to Nepal after BP took the policy of national reconciliation," he said. "The government gave me three bigahs of land stating that I had suffered at the hands of the state at that time."

His colleague Fadindramani Pokharel, 82 years old, said, "He was stubborn from the beginning, and even now he still has the zeal to do something." Recalling that he was the ward chairman when he was the village panchayat vice president, he said, "I don't think that his enthusiasm has decreased even though he is getting older."

Similarly, his younger son Arjun Babu Pokharel is surprised to see the passion of his hundred-year-old father. "My father has a little high blood pressure. However, he doesn't have any other physical problem," he said. Waking up at 4 in the morning, doing routine work, walking, eating lunch, sleeping in the evening has become the daily routine of Pokharel for a hundred years. At present, he sometimes stays at his son's house in Chitwan and sometimes in Gorkha.