CHITWAN, May 28: With relatively few uncounted votes left in wards considered as Maoist Center's electoral alliance partner Nepali Congress's political strongholds, the mayoral race in Bharatpur Metropolitan City has reached cliffhanger point: the margin by which the CPN- UML mayoral candidate Devi Gyawali is leading his nearest rival Maoist Center mayoral candidate Renu Dahal has been decreasing for the last few days.
By Tuesday, he was leading Dahal by a margin of 3836 votes. It has now been reduced to 1013 votes.
Devi Gyawali is leading Renu Dahal with 40,343 votes, compared to 39,330 votes garnered by his nearest rival Dahal.
Bharatpur episode: a big test for Election Commission, parties
Vote counting is now under way in Ward 21 of Bharatpur Metropolitan City.
It is still too early to breathe a sigh of relief for UML mayoral candidate despite leading his nearest rival by 1013 votes.
The wards 19 and 20 where vote count has not begun yet are part of Constituency 4 of Chitwan district , which is considered as stronghold of Nepali Congress.
Though in urban areas like Bharatpur, voters with allegiance to Nepali Congress ignored their party’s instruction by voting against Renu Dahal, a common mayoral candidate of Nepali Congress and CPN(Maoist center) who forged am electoral alliance in some local units including Bharatpur Metropolis, NC-bent voters in rural areas have shown their allegiance to their party by abiding by its instruction to assist Renu Dahal for mayoral position.
Since the remaining wards are in the rural areas considered as NC’s political stronghold, there is a possibility of this trend being repeated. The repetition is not a good sign for the UML mayoral candidate Devi Gywali who has started taking the lead with a lesser and lesser margin of votes as vote counts in NC strongholds are approaching and vote counts in UML’s political strongholds are already over.
