CHITWAN, May 28: As the vote count in Bharatpur Metropolitan City is going on final stage, the votes' margin between mayoral contestants has been shrinking regularly.
Among the 29 wards in Bharatpur, the office of returning officer has already completed the vote count of 26 wards. After the completion of vote count of ward number 18 on Sunday morning, CPN-UML candidate for the mayor post Devi Gyawali maintained 1,145 votes. As the margin is shrinking, Gyawali has received 39,750 votes so far while CPN (Maoist Center) candidate Renu Dahal, who is also supported by Nepali Congress, has garnered 38,605 votes so far.
UML leads Maoist Center with 396 votes in Bharatpur Metropolis
Despite Dahal received less votes from NC cadres from wards in core city area, she has been receiving good votes from outskirts of Bharatpur. As the ward number 19, 20 and 21 are yet to be counted and all three wards are considered as wards with stronghold of NC, the vote count is getting more and more interesting.
The vote count so far obviously shows that whoever wins the contest will win by a small margin.
On the other hand, NC candidate Parbati Shah has comfortable lead in the contest for deputy-mayor. Shah has garnered 42,546 votes so far while her nearest rival Divya Sharma of UML has reached at 36,385 so far.
According to the office of returning officer, 9,730 votes are remaining. Altogether, 112,741 votes were cast in Bharatpur.
