Electoral fervour heats up in Sarlahi-3

By Janarjan Khatri,Sarlahi, Feb. 8: Electoral fervour has intensified in Sarlahi-3 with the participation of senior national leaders. Nepali Communist Party (NCP) leader and former Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha, who has left Gorkha to contest from Sarlahi, is among the main contenders.

He is facing Hari Prasad Upreti, former Defence Minister and the incumbent House of Representatives member from the CPN-UML; senior Nepali Congress leader Binod Kumar Khanal; and Narendra Sah Kalwar of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), among a total of 34 candidates.

In the 2022 House of Representatives election, UML’s Hari Prasad Upreti won from Sarlahi-3 with 32,938 votes. At that time, Narendra Sah Kalwar, then a candidate of the CPN (Maoist Centre) and now with the RSP, secured 32,168 votes. Kalwar, who lost by a margin of 770 votes three years ago while contesting from the Maoist Centre, is again in the race this time on an RSP ticket.

Earlier, in the 2017 HoR election, CPN (Maoist Centre) candidate Rameshwar Rai Yadav won from Sarlahi-3 with 22,367 votes, defeating his closest rival Haresh Prasad Mahato of the Nepali Congress, who received 14,929 votes. Narendra Sah Kalwar had also contested as an independent candidate in Sarlahi-3 in 2017, securing 12,086 votes.

Rameshwar Rai Yadav, who was elected in 2017, has quit the NCP after not being given a ticket this time. Following the party’s decision to field Narayan Kaji Shrestha from Sarlahi, Yadav joined the Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) Nepal and is now contesting from Sarlahi-4, where he faces Nepali Congress President Gagan Kumar Thapa, RSP’s Dr. Amresh Kumar Singh and others.

Sarlahi-3 has a mixed population of hill-origin and Madheshi communities, and the upcoming election is likely to feature competition among four parties: NCP, NC, RSP and UML.

Shrestha said voters would trust him as he has long stood with loan shark victims and sugarcane farmers in the area. “When I was a Home Minister, I took a firm stand against usurious moneylenders. The Sarlahi locals urged me to represent them, which is why I left Gorkha and came to Sarlahi,” he said.

RSP candidate Kalwar, who narrowly lost last time, said voters would support him as he has been involved in social service in Sarlahi-3 even without holding office. Claiming that the country is now strongly in favour of the RSP, he said he was confident of winning this time.

Incumbent lawmaker and UML candidate Upreti said voters would choose a representative who serves people in times of hardship rather than “outsiders or the wealthy”. He argued that the development work initiated during his three-year tenure was sufficient to secure his re-election.

Nepali Congress candidate Khanal said voters would trust him after seeing his decades-long contribution to bridge construction, electrification and irrigation in Sarlahi-3, even when he held no official post. 

“In my three decades of political life, I have worked to build bridges, roads, electricity and irrigation even without being a representative. I am confident that voters will elect me this time after seeing my efforts and service,” he said.

Sarlahi-3 comprises 51 wards, covering all wards of Bagmati Municipality (1 to 12), Hariban Municipality (1 to 11), Chakraghatta Rural Municipality (1 to 9), Ward Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17 and 18 of Barahathwa Municipality, Ward No. 1 of Haripur Municipality, Ward Nos. 3, 4, 5 and 6 of Kabilasi Municipality and ward Nos. 4, 5 and 6 of Basbariya Rural Municipality. The constituency has 134,412 registered voters.