CHITWAN, May 21: CPN-UML mayoral candidate Devi Gyawali continues to take the lead in the mayoral race of Bharatpur Metropolitan City with 17,591 votes, compared to 16,706 votes for his closest rival Maoist Center mayoral candidate Renu Dahal.

He is leading Dahal by 885 votes.

Vote counting has been completed in 10 wards of a total of 29 wards in Bharatpur Metropolis.

It had been expected that CPN-UML would perform well in Ward 10. But UML mayoral candidate has garnered 2436 votes, compared to 1897 votes for his closest rival Maoist center mayoral candidate.

Renu Dahal has garnered 12 00 votes from outside the circle of people linked to Maoist Center ideologically. The votes Dahal garnered in Ward 10 from Nepali Congress (NC) account for 65 percent of total NC voters. It is news of relief for the parties that forged an electoral alliance.

It has been expected that Maoist Center mayoral candidate Dahal will trounce UML mayoral candidate Gyawali if she succeeds in garnering little-bit-more-than-fifty-percent of votes of Nepali Congress.

Ward 10, 11 and 12 are considered as UML strongholds. To ensure his victory in the mayoral race of Bharatpur Metropolis, UML mayoral candidate Gyawali needs to continue to lead Maoist Center mayoral candidate Dahal by a significant margin by the time vote counting is over in these three wards.   

 
• uml
 
• struggling
 
• hard
 
• leading
 
• maoist
 
• bharatpur
 
• metropolis