NC’s Sharma and UML’s Kharel contesting HoR election in Jhapa-1

BY LILA RAJ KHADKA

Birtamod, Oct. 17: Election activities have increased in Jhapa constituency-1. Jhapa constituency no.1 is important because two heavy weight candidates from the ruling Nepali Congress and the main opposition CPN-UML are contesting the election to the House of Representatives slated for November 20 from here.

General Secretary of the Nepali Congress (NC) and popular youth leader Bishwa Prakash Sharma and UML Standing Committee member and former Law Minister Agni Kharel are in fray from this constituency . This year, 15 candidates are competing for the House of Representatives (HoR) and 16 for the Provincial Assembly from  this constituency.

Earlier, Rastriya Prajatantra Party candidate Shanta Raj Karki withdrew his nomination for HoR, supporting UML candidate Kharel. Sharma is the common candidate of the alliance of the NC, CPN (Maoist Centre) and CPN (Unified Socialist) while Kharel is a joint candidate of the  CPN-UML and Rastriya Prajatantra Party.  Although Sharma has the advantage of his local area, it is speculated that Kharel would get the advantage as he is  from one of the traditionally strong parties--the CPN-UML. 

In the 2017 elections, Sharma lost the election to Ram Karki of the UML-Maoist Centre alliance. Sharma garnered  33,310 votes against Karki’s 36,173 votes. According to the supporters of Sharma, he had played a leading role in the development of the area even though he did not win the  election in 2017. Similarly, Kharel’s supporters said that he had a leadership capability and vision for the development activities.

The Jhapa constituency-1 includes 15 wards of Mechinagar Municipality, ward nos. 9 and 10 of Bhadrapur Municipality, and ward nos. 4, 5, 6 and 7 of Buddha Shanti Rural Municipality. There are 120,375 voters in this constituency.