BIRGUNJ, Nov 6: Leaders and cadres who were not officially selected as poll candidates have become threats to the political parties in Parsa district. It has become a thorny issue for the parties after several disgruntled members joined their rival parties while some have rebelled against the parties to file independent candidacy.
It is believed that the disgruntled groups will play a role to affect the poll results whether they win the elections or not.
Shiva Patel, general secretary of Rastriya Janata Party Nepal (RJPN), abandoned his party and has filed independent candidacy in constituency 2 b for the provincial assembly seat. Patel is supported by a disgruntled section of the Nepali Congress and the left alliance.
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Another RJPN leader Mohammad Kadam Rasul joined Nepal Sanghiya Samajbadi Party (NSSP) after quitting his party. Rasul is contesting the election from the NSSP for the federal parliament from constituency 1 of Parsa.
Former Birgunj mayor Bimal Shreevastav, who is renowned for switching parties in every election, will be contesting the polls from Forum Nepal for the federal parliament from constituency 2 of the district.
Shreevastav, who was the general secretary of RJPN before the local body elections, quit his party a day before filing nomination and entered Nepal Loktantrik Forum to contest for the mayoral post. Though he did not win the local election, he garnered over 8,000 votes and established himself as a strong contender in the district. He was also invited by the CPN-UML leaders to join their party.
Imdad Gaddi, district chairman of RJPN, quit the party and is contesting the election from NSSP for the federal parliament from constituency 4. He changed the party after he was not selected by his party as a poll candidate.
Similarly, Anita Rauniyar, district women's forum chair of the RJPN, is contesting the election for provincial assembly seat from CPN-ML in constituency 1 b. Om Prakash Sharraf of RJPN is contesting election as an independent candidate from constituency 1 b. Bindhyachal Thakur, who did not get ticket from the Nepal Loktantrik Forum, is also registered as an independent candidate in constituency 3 b. Dhambhu Gupta, another leader of NLF, is contesting the election from CPN-UML in constituency 1 b of the district.
Dissatisfaction of ticket distribution is rife among the rank and file of the left alliance in the district. The chiefs of three rural municipalities and other Maoist leaders have lobbied not to select Urmila Aryal as the alliance candidate by writing a letter to the central committee of the party.
Likewise, the activists of Nepali Congress, who are dissatisfied with the party, have started boycotting the party programs. One of them is a former member of parliament, Rajendra Bahadur Amatya, among dozens of others unhappy with the ticket distribution.
