BHAKTAPUR, May 30: Any candidate contesting in an election hopes to garner as many votes as possible and get elected to the post aspired for with a resounding win.
But that was not the case with some of the candidates who contested in the first-phase local level election in different local level posts in Bhaktapur. Forget about winning the election and garnering the maximum votes, some of the candidates ended up without even getting a single vote – their own vote too.
The first-phase local election was held for 283 local levels in Province Nos. 3, 4 and 6 on May 14.
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One among the candidates getting zero votes is Babu Krishna Shrestha who was in election race for the post of Mayor of Madhyapur Thimi Municipality as an independent. The Election Commission had assigned him the 'shuttle cork' as the election symbol.
Fourteen individuals had registered their candidacy for the post of Mayor and six for the post of Deputy Mayor.
According to the Chief Returning Officer Chandra Kumar Pokharel, the election symbol 'badminton shuttle cork' did not get even a single vote when the vote counting was concluded.
Shrestha is not the only candidate to get zero votes in the first-phase local election in Bhaktapur. There are others of his ilk. Roman Bajracharya is another mayoral candidate who did not even get one vote. He was assigned the election symbol 'bat- the mammal'. Bajracharya said he did not canvass the voters before the election nor distributed any pamphlets to voters. He even did not place posters of himself and his election symbol at any strategic location in town.
Asked why he did not vote himself, he declined to answer. He only said this was not any news-worthy topic and something that has to be responded.
Similarly, the candidates for the post of Ward Chairperson of Ward No. 7 of Madhyapur Thimi Municipality with 'kangaroo' and 'gumboot' as election symbols got zero votes.
Two candidates of ward chairperson in Madhyapur got zero votes in the election. Similarly, number of candidates getting less than 10 votes in Madhyapur Thimi Municipality is two in the post of Mayor, 11 in ward chairperson and 35 in ward members.
According to the Office of the Election Officer, candidate of Mayoral post, Maha Prasad Parajuli with 'cat' election symbol had got a single vote while Sarita Duwal, candidate of mayoral post, with 'battery' election symbol had received only two votes.
Likewise, most of the candidates of ward chairpersons and members receiving less than 10 votes are from Rastriya Janamorcha, CPN (ML), and the alliance of Federal Socialist Forum and Naya Shakti Party.
Similarly, number of candidates receiving zero votes in Bhaktapur Municipality is 11.
According to the details provided by the Office of the Chief Returning Officer, an independent candidate of chairperson of ward no 2 of Bhaktapur Municipality, Surya Narayan Phanju with 'tea table' election symbol, Hari Sundar Labaju of ward no 3 with 'garlic' election symbol, Bishworam Twayana of ward no 4 with 'janto (traditional grinding stone)' election symbol, Narayan Bhakta Bhele of ward no 5 with 'walnut' election symbol, Bidyan Dhusa of ward no 6 with 'pineapple' election symbol, Purna Bhakta Suwal of ward no 6 with 'chulesi (traditional vegetable cutting knife)' as election symbol, Rameshwor Prajapati of ward no 7 with 'watch' election symbol and Krishna Prasad Koju of ward no 8 with 'sketch of doctor' as election symbol, Bishnu Bhakta Kusi of ward no 9 with 'cone' election symbol and Bharat Prasad Bhadra of ward no 10 with 'hat' election symbol got zero votes.
Similarly, independent candidate of member of ward no 10, Mohan Kumar Hyogoju with 'tiger' election symbol received zero vote. RSS
