POKHARA, May 23: Dhanraj Acharya of CPN (Unified Socialist) is close to winning the post of Mayor of Pokhara Metropolitan City.

In the counting of 119,319 votes till Monday morning, he came close to victory by leaving behind the rival CPN-UML candidate Krishna Thapa by 3,853 votes. Out of the total 143,226 votes cast, 23,907 votes remain to be counted.

Acharya has so far received 47,992 votes. UML candidate Thapa is following him with 44,139 votes. Now the final results of wards 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 31, 32 and 33 are yet to come.

According to the preliminary results of these wards, Acharya is getting more votes in wards 17, 18, 19, 31, 32 and 33. In the remaining wards 21 and 22, Thapa has slightly more votes. UML had expected Thapa to get a lot of votes from wards 17, 19 and 21.

But when almost half of the votes were counted, Thapa did not get more votes in those wards. At the same time, Thapa did not get encouraging votes in wards 5 and 26, known as the stronghold of UML. Therefore, it is unlikely that Thapa will get the minimal number of votes where votes are being counted.

RPP's Shankar Kharal got 5,164 votes for the post of mayor and rebel independent candidate Ganesh Poudel got 2,815 votes.

CPN-UML candidate for deputy mayor Manju Devi Gurung is also aiming for victory. She has also been increasing her differences with Nepali Congress candidate Kopila Ranabhat. Gurung has continued to lead with 50,260 votes.

Ranabhat of the Nepali Congress is following her with 47,470 votes. Gurung is ahead of Ranabhat by 2,790 votes. RPP's Ranjana Sen has received 5,119 votes for the post of deputy mayor.

 
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