An active entrepreneur, Acharya has been working hard in recent days to create an election wave in his favor after the UCPN (Maoist) proposed his name as a possible candidate from Banke constituency no. 3 for the coming Constituent Assembly (CA) election. He has been proposed under the first-past-the-post electoral system and though the party is yet to finalize its list of candidates, he has already intensified his election campaign. [break]
“We are lobbying hard for the representation of the business sector in the constitution writing process within the new CA,” he said. “We all representatives from the private sector will advocate the economic agenda no matter which party we are elected from.”
Mohammad Yakub Ansari aka Gobre, chairman of the Association of Herbs Entrepreneurs, is equally busy electioneering in recent days after the Nepali Congress (NC) proposed him as the FPTP candidate from Banke-2.
“I have become quite encouraged after being selected as one of the alternative candidates from the district. This time I am pretty confident of winning the election once the party endorses my candidacy,” said Ansari.
Many other business people from this mid-western development region have been proposed as possible candidates under both the FPTP and proportional representative systems.
The NC has proposed the names of three well-known businesspersons from Dang district. The party has proposed Bhojraj Pandey as candidate from Dang-2, Raju Khanal from Dang-3 and Buddhiram Bhandari from Dang-4.
Similarly, other businesspersons proposed by various political parties from this region include Padam Rokaya (UML) from Jumla, Chitrakali Budha (UML) from Pyuthan-2, Ishrat Ali Mukeri (Rastriya Prajatantra Party) from Banke-2, and Lalit Kumar Rauniyar (TMDP) and Misbaha-Ul Haque Ansari (MPRF-Democratic) from the same constituency.
Other business people proposed as candidates are Nayaram Thapa (UCPN-Maoist) from Dailekh-2, Rajiv Bikram Shah (NC) from Jajarkot -1 and 2 and Kaman Bahadur Khadka (RPP) from Jajarkot-2.
Also, Kismat Kumar Kakshyapati (UML) from Banke-4, Krishna Yadav (MPRF-Nepal) from Bardiya-2, Ganesh Kumar Shrestha, Hikmat BK (NC) and Surya Kumari Shrestha (UML) from Dailekh-2 and Devendra Prasad Sharma (RPP) from Jajarkot-1 are some other business people proposed as candidates.
Party leaders said the parties haven´t nominated people from the business community as candidates from Surkhet, Rolpa, Kalikot and Humla, among some other districts in this region. “We didn´t lobby for election tickets and the political parties also didn´t show any interest in pick candidates from the business community in our district,” said Padam Bahadur Shahi, chairman of Surkhet Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
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