Office assistant elected ward chair

By Liladhar Oli Ghorahi, May 24: About three months ago, Chandra Bahadur Gurung used to work as an office assistant in the ward office of Rapti Rural Municipality-8.

Reaching office at 9:00 am, cleaning office, serving tea and water to the office bearers and employees was regular routine of 32-year-old Gurung before three months. 

He also used to assist service seekers in leisure time because of which he is well known among the ward residents.

Gurung worked as an office assistant for five years on a contract basis. The same person has now been elected as ward chairman from the local level elections held on May 13. His role has been changed and now he will serve as a people’s representative for the next five years.

After assuming office, the first step he took was shifting the room of ward chairman to the ground  floor, to ease the service seekers, especially elderlies and persons  with disabilities.

"The local government is the government at the doorsteps of the people."We have all kinds of service  seekers, including elderlies and disabled. 

"So, we decided to move the ward chairman's office to the ground floor to make our service accessible for all.  "The service seekers will easily meet their ward chairperson.”

Gurung has assured that he would work for the development of the ward as per the people’s aspirations.   “I will first assess the need of the ward and will work accordingly. 

"I will try to make my five-year  tenure worth remembering,” he pledged. Gurung, whose family is far away from politics, said he was attracted to politics while working as an office assistant.

"I have been interested in social  work since my childhood but never thought of becoming involved in politics. 

"But after joining the ward office slowly I got familiar with the workers' union of CPN-UML," he said.

The government was gearing up for the local polls and the political parties had already concentrated their activities at the lower rung. Till then, he had not thought of contesting the election, said Gurung.  

“I was continuing my work. Many service seekers, who visited the ward office, encouraged me to file my candidacy for the post of ward chair citing that I am young and experienced. 

"So, I followed their suggestions,” he said. According to Gurung, there were five aspirant candidates of UML for the post.  But the party later trusted him and filed his candidacy.

He resigned from the post and started preparing for the election.

He won the election with 950 votes. His nearest competitor Prabhakar Dev Chaudhary of Nepali Congress received 816 votes and CPN (Maoist Centre) candidate Ram Chandra Chaudhary received 206 votes.

Gurung studied till SEE and was forced to quit his study due to poverty.  He went to Saudi Arabia and Malaysia to work there as migrant workers.