Santosh Upadhyaya won the coveted title of Mr Nepal 2019, beating 22 contestants in the finale held on Thursday at Hotel Annapurna, Durbar Marg.

Mr Nepal Upadhyaya’s brilliant answer in the question answer round impressed the judges and helped him to clinch the crown. Amid the question answer round, all top five finalists were asked, “If you win the title of Mr Nepal 2019, what can you do for anti-corruption and bring the slogan ‘Prosperous Nepal Happy Nepali’ into reality?”

To this, Upadhyaya answered, “As a citizen I have visited many government offices where I have personally experienced corruption. And one thing that I have noticed is not just government and officials, we, the public and our mentality is the biggest culprit, as we pay them to make our work easier. Being Mr Nepal, I would be a social media icon. And being a social media icon, I can start a campaign to report corruption to concerned authorities. Similarly, I can also work with government to make policies for anti-corruption.”

Upadhyaya who hails from Achham is a medical doctor, professionally. Besides, Dilraj Neupane and Bimal Pandey became first and second runner-ups, respectively.

Meanwhile, sub title winners were, Arun Kumar Dangol (Best Traditional Wear), Lokesh Raj Shrestha (Mr Sports), Rahul Singh Rajput (Best Model), Hit Shankar Kulung (Mr Multimedia), Bimal Pandey (Mr Fitness), and Abinash Chaudhary (Mr Digipay Popular).