Home Minister Khand in fray with RPP’s Bohora

By Govinda Regmi/Shyam Shankar Pandey

Lumbini, Nov. 7: Minister for Home Affairs Bal Krishna Khand, who is the common candidate from the ruling alliance, is in tough competition with Rastriya Prajatantra Party’s Dipak Bohora for the House of Representatives (HoR) election from Rupandehi Constituency 3.

Both the candidates have started their door-to-door election campaign in the constituency. Locals have stated that the competition between the duo, who has already been in power, will be interesting.

“Khand is a standing federal minister and central committee member of Nepali Congress with support from CPN (Maoist Centre) and CPN (Unified Socialist). Bohora has been in politics and contesting election from Rupandehi since 1980. He also has support from CPN-UML and Janata Samajwadi Party,” said 67-year-old Gopal Prasad Neupane, a resident from Rupandehi-3’s Siddharthanagar Municipality-12.

Meanwhile, Neupane informed that the election environment in the constituency this time wasn’t as fiery as it used to be before due to which it had been difficult to make a guess regarding the winner.However, Khand stressed that his win was certain.

“It has been a long journey in politics since the college days. I have been fighting for the country for years. I won from this constituency from NC even in the 2007 election. This time, I have support from other major parties as well,” said Khand while addressing election programmes in the constituency.

On the other hand, political parties supporting Bohora have stressed his win. “Bohora isn’t able to speak properly now due to health problems since he has just recovered from COVID-19 but he will win the elections,” said Niranjan Thapa, RPP leader and former state minister for home affairs.

Meanwhile, some locals stressed that people would vote for powerful leaders, while some argued that they would vote on the basis of strong agendas. Loktantrik Samajwadi Party’s Santosh Kumar Pandey from the ruling alliance and Janata Samajwadi Party’s Mahendra Yadav are competing for the Provincial Assembly-1 from the constituency. Similarly, NC’s Ram Chandra Dhakal and CPN-UML’s Tulasi Prasad Chaudhary are competing in Provincial Assembly-2 of the constituency.