POKHARA, Oct 7: Political parties in Pokhara have unveiled a long list of prospective candidates for the parliamentary and provincial elections. Unable to finalize the candidate, parties have forwarded the names to their party headquarters for the final decision.
Major political parties like Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML, CPN (Maoist-Centre) and Naya Shakti Nepal have sent the names of the aspirants to the party headquarters. In Kaski, there are three election constituencies for parliamentary election and six for provincial election. As per the parties, the name list of candidates under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) category and proportional representation (PR) has been forwarded to the central department. Besides some new faces, the parties have also recommended some senior and well known political leaders.
The NC has forwarded the names of 156 aspirants under the FPTP and PR categories for both the elections, which is the highest among all the parties. The NC has recommended the names of Minister for Law Yagya Bahadur Thapa, Jiwan Pariyar, former spokesperson Taranath Ranabhat, Tilak Ranabhat among others for the parliamentary elections under the FPTP category in Constituency 1. Six more names have been recommended under the PR category for the same constituency.
Likewise in Constituency 2, five aspirants have been recommended for the FPTP category while seven names have been forwarded under the PR category. Likewise in Constituency 3, altogether eight names have been picked under the FPTP and six for PR, informed Nabin Sigdel, district members of NC.
The NC has also mentioned the names of prospective candidates for the provincial elections in the same list.
After the leftist parties announced their alliance for the elections, prospective candidates of the democratic parties are adopting 'wait and see' policy. The candidates say that forming an alliance can have a great influence in party's decision to give tickets to them.
CPN-UML has also finalized its candidates in some of the constituencies. According to Tej Narayan Adhikari, district chief of the party's publicity department, former Health Minister Khagraj Adhikari has been unanimously recommended by the party under the FPTP category in Constituency 1. Furthermore, Rabindra Adhikari and Ratna Gnurung have been recommended under the FPTP in Constituency 2. In Constituency 3, the party has forwarded the names of three aspirants under the FPTP category. “We have forwarded some names but that does not mean it is the final decision,” said Adhikari.
Parties struggling to select candidates in Kaski
Bakhan Singh Tamu, coordinator of CPN (Maoist-Centre) in Kaski, informed that the party has recommended Dev Gurung and Nirmala Subedi in Constituency 1 under the FPTP category. He further informed that Rajakaji Gurung and Tej Kumari Poudel have been recommended for area 2 and Ramji Baral and Durga BK in area 3 under the FPTP category.
“We have recommended at least one woman in each of the constituencies,” informed Tamu. The party has forwarded the names of prospective candidates for the provincial election as well. However, it is yet to finalize their names.
Meanwhile, Naya Shakti Nepal has also picked its nominees for some constituencies but it is yet to finalize the candidates in some areas. So, like other parties, it has forwarded the names of the aspirants to the party headquarters for final decision.
