Chaudhary becomes first woman mayor in Saptari

By Our Correspondent Kalyanpur, May 20: Gita Chaudhary of Surunga Municipality in Saptari has set an example that woman can win the election if the party give them ticket to contest election by getting elected mayor. 

A Nepali Congress (NC) candidate, Chaudhary won mayoral post in the municipality by garnering 7,292 votes. 

Similarly, NC's Rudra Bahadur Karki secured the post of deputy mayor with 6,275 votes. Chaudhary's closest rival Ram Narayan Chaudhary and Karki's Sunita Kumari Mukhiya both from CPN (Unified Socialist) got 4,217 and 3,998 votews respectively. 

Emerging from the Tharuhat movement, Chaudhary was elected as the mayor in the municipality. Tharu-dominated Surunga Municipality is considered a stronghold of the NC. 

Earlier, Muktinath Chaudhary, also from NC, was elected in 2017 local level elections.

Newly elected Chaudhary said that she would continue to work to ensure locals’ access to health, education, drinking water, roads and agriculture. Chaudhary, who has always been well-known among the locals, said that she got the opportunity to serve the people by being elected. 

Out of the 18 local levels of the district, the political parties had fielded six women candidates for the post of mayor and deputy-mayor. Two women had independently filed candidacy for the mayorship. But other than Chaudhary, no woman has been elected as mayor in Saptari.

Meanwhile, Rina Kumari Sah became the mayor of Maulapur Municipality of Rautahat district for the second time. 

Sah, a candidate from CPN-UML, received 5,564 votes while her closest competitor Ramprabesh Ray of CPN (Maoist Centre) got 3,062 votes.

Sah was the only woman chief across the local levels of Rautahat in the 2017 Local Election. Meanwhile, the results of all the local levels in Rautahat haven’t come out yet.

CPN-UML’s Nagendra Prasad Yadav won the deputy mayor post of Maulapur by receiving 4,914 votes. He won against his closest competitor Rina Kumari Sah of CPN (Maoist Centre) by 1,510 votes.