Jhakri’s debut nomination against three-time winner Bista in Gulmi-2

By Govinda Regmi/Tilachan Pandey

Gulmi, Nov. 10: Ram Kumari Jhakri and Gokarna Bista had been praised by the cadres of the same party until some years ago. However, after the split between KP Sharma Oli and Madhav Kumar Nepal, Bista remained in the CPN-UML while Jhakri went with Nepal to the new party CPN (Unified Socialists).

Now, the two leaders are in fray against each other from election Constituency-2 of Gulmi district for the seat of House of Representatives (HoR) in the upcoming general elections due on November 20.

Both have served their time as a federal minister and are the district secretaries for their respective parties as well. Nevertheless, Bista has been elected as the candidate from the constituency three times already in 1999, 2013 and 2017 elections. He had lost the 2007 election to Chandra Bahadur Thapa of CPN (Maoist).

“I see nothing than my win because I have worked with my constituency people for their development for many years and they have felt the changes every time,” said Bista.

Meanwhile, the oppositions have predicted their win. Jhakri is a common candidate of the ruling alliance including Nepali Congress and CPN (Maoist Centre).

“I am certain that the people of Gulmi will elect me this time. 

They know how slow the pace of development has been despite the same individual in the post for multiple times,” said Jhakri.

On the other hand, locals expressed that the competition between Jhakri and Bista will be interesting.

“Jhakri is the common candidate of three major parties and a new face while Bista has been winning almost continuously. 

So, it will be interesting to see if the same old winner will continue or people will seek a change,” said Sanjib Kafle, a local social worker.

Santosh Pun, a voter from Gulmi-2, stressed that it will be difficult for Jhakri to win against Bista because it was his stronghold. “However, only election results will show who the majority of people want to elect,” Pun added.

Gulmi has two constituencies. While Gulmi-2 has an interesting competition this election, Gulmi-1’s election environment is even more interesting.

The major contenders from Gulmi-1 are Nepali Congress’ Chandra Bhandari and CPN-UML’s Pradip Kumar Gyawali. The duo has been competing against each other for the past 14 years in three elections from the same place.

The 2007 election was won by Gyawali, the 2013 election by Bhandari and the previous 2017 election by Gyawali again. The fourth head-to-head between the duo will be interesting, local voters say.

Other than the HoR seats, the provincial elections will also be exciting to watch in Gulmi. 

Sudarshan Baral of CPN (Maoist) and Chintamani Pandey of CPN-UML are contesting for Provincial Constituency (A) and the race is between NC’s Dhanendra Karki and UML’s Pharsuram Pandey in Provincial Constituency (B) of Gulmi-1.

Likewise, UML’s Dilli Raj Bhusal and ruling alliance candidate Bhuwan Shrestha are contesting in Provincial Constituency (A) and UML’s Dinesh Panthi and Maoist’s Buddhi GC in Provincial Constituency (B) of Gulmi-2.