There are some 28 candidates in the fray from 17 parties in the two constituencies of the district. [break]
Only 14 parties have filed candidacy in Constituency No. 1 and 13 in No. 2.
Although there are 17 parties, only four are in strong competition and they are UCPN-Maoist, Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Sanghiya Samajbadi Party.
In the earlier CA, there were only eight parties and now there are 17 and tough competition is expected.
In Constituency No. 2, except for UCPN-Maoist´s Sudan Rai and CPN-UML´s Sherdhan Rai all others are new faces. Although UCPN-Maoist had won in the previous election in both constituencies, this time it is difficult for the party to keep its status intact and Sanghiya Samajbadi split from CPN-UML is to give a strong rivalry to all three big parties.
Political analysts say we can not estimate which party wins as there are more candidates and people are more aware this time than in the previous CA.
In Constituency No. 1, UCPN-Maoist has fielded Khemraj Nepali Arun, NC has Dharma Raj Rai, CPN-UML has Kripashur Sherpa and Sanghiya Samajbadi Party has Ajambar Kangmang Rai and in No. 2, there are NC´s Balkrishna Thapa, CPN-UML´s Sherdhan Rai and UCPN-Maoist´s Sudan Rai and Sanghiya Samajbadi Party´s Ash Kumar Rai.
As winner in the previous CA, Sudan Rai of UCPN-Maoist is confident of his victory and NC though has not so far won in the district, also says it will win in both. Khemraj Nepali of UCPN-Maoist also says his party will win in both constituencies.
CPN-UML´s Sherdhan Rai claims that his party will win now. "We are capable to write constitution and people´s participation is remarkable in our mass meetings and we will win," he says.
Bhojpur has some 91,000 voters and in Constituency No. 1 there are 32 VDCs with 46,000 voters and in No. 2 there are 45,000 voters in 31 VDCs.
This is less than half of the previous election and the party garnering 10,000 to 12,000 votes will win this time, political cadres estimate.
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