Old faces dominate Gulmi election race

By Our Correspondent,Tamghas (Gulmi), Feb.1: With the House of Representatives election (HoR) scheduled for March 5 approaching, political party candidates in Gulmi have intensified their campaigns, reaching out to voters. 

Candidates are making various efforts to win over voters and the contest in the district is expected to be largely among the major political parties. 

Notably, several candidates who have been contesting elections since 1999 are in race again.

CPN-UML vice-chairperson and former minister Gokarna Raj Bista has been contesting elections continuously from Gulmi constituency-2 since 1999. 

He was defeated by the then CPN-Maoist candidate Sagar Thapa in the 2008 election, but has emerged victorious in other elections. 

This time, Bista is facing competition from Nepali Congress (NC) candidate Bhuwan Prasad Shrestha, Nepali Communist Party (NCP) candidate Shriram Mahat, Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) candidate Govinda Panthi and others, with a total of 22 candidates contesting the constituency.

In Gulmi constituency-1, CPN-UML central committee member and former minister Pradeep Gyawali has also been contesting elections continuously since 1999. 

He was elected from the constituency in 1999, 2008 and 2017. He is again facing NC leader Chandra Bhandari, who has been contesting elections from the constituency since 2008 and won in the 2013 and 2022 elections. 

Also in the fray in constituency-1 are NCP leader and former Lumbini Province minister Sudarshan Baral and RSP candidate Sagar Dhakal, among others. A total of 21 candidates are contesting from the constituency.

Gulmi district has a total of 229,549 voters. Of them, 122,186 are registered in constituency-1 and 107,363 in constituency-2. The district has 145 polling centres and 284 polling stations.

With veteran politicians such as Bista, Gyawali and Bhandari once again contesting, the election in Gulmi is being closely watched as a contest between old political figures and their competitors.