TIKAPUR, June 10: With the date for the second round of local elections inching closer, Nepali Congress (NC) has begun its promotional campaign in Tikapur Municipality and Janaki Rural Municipality of Kailali-1 since Friday.

The government has announced June 14 as the date for the elections in provinces 1, 2, 5 and 7. So, the excitement of elections has gripped the political parties as well as the locals. The NC commenced its publicity campaign by announcing the names of the candidates for various posts. The party has forwarded the name of Junga Bahadur Saud for the mayoral post while Keshari Bista will be competing for the post of deputy mayor. 

Saud, who has been fielded for the major post in Tikapur, is a former chairperson of Dhansinghpur VDC. He was twice elected as the chairperson of the VDC. So, he possesses a good social standing and is quite popular among the people. 

Bista, who has been picked by the party as the candidate for the post of deputy mayor is an active female leader of the party. She has been taken as a strong competitor for her opponents. 

Similarly, the party is planning to choose contractor Rana Bahadur Rawal for the post of chief ward-1, which is a market area. However, there have been some speculations that the party might forward the name of Namaraj Shahi for the same post. The NC has already fielded its candidates in eight other wards.

 Meanwhile, the NC has formed a finance sub-committee under the co-ordination of Raj Kumar Hamal in Tikapur.

There are altogether 39,000 voters in Tikapur Municipality and 14,000 among them belong to the Tharu community. According to sources, people from the Tharu community will vote for leaders of their own community. During the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections of 2013, the united votes of the Tharu community had helped in electing Janak Raj Chaudhary of Nepal Democratic Forum (NDF) as the people's representative. But the NC is still hopeful that the Tharu community might just support them this time. 

In Janaki Rural Municipality, the party has chosen Ganga Devi Chaudhary for the post of chairperson and Surya Bahadur Batala for vice chairperson. As most of the voters here belong to the Tharu community, most of the parties have fielded Tharu candidates for the major posts. 

There are altogether 27,507 voters among which 17,000 of them belong to the Tharu community.

 
• nepali congress
 
• promotional campaign
 
• second phase
 
• local polls
 
• kailali