RSP ends dominance of left parties, Nepali Congress in Bagmati

By Rammani Dahal,Makwanpur, Mar. 13: Following Nepal’s transition to federalism, the Nepali Congress and leftist parties had long dominated Bagmati Province. But in the latest House of Representatives election, they suffered a humiliating defeat, winning one seat each. 

The Nepali Congress and the Nepali Communist Party (NCP) each secured victory in one constituency, while the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) won 31 in the election held on March 5. Bagmati province has 33 constituencies. 

In the 2017 general election, the Nepali Congress and leftist parties had won all seats in the province. However, with the emergence of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) in the 2022 election, their dominance had already begun to shrink.

In the latest election, RSP candidates secured victory in almost all constituencies across the province, except in Rasuwa district, where Nepali Congress candidate Mohan Acharya won, and in Sindhupalchok Constituency No. 2, where CPN candidate Yuvaraj Dulal emerged victorious. Dulal had resigned from his position as a member of the Bagmati Provincial Assembly in order to contest the election.

The RSP achieved a clean sweep in several districts, including Kathmandu, which has 10 constituencies, Lalitpur and Chitwan with three constituencies each, and Makwanpur, Kavrepalanchok, Sindhuli, Dhading, Bhaktapur, and Nuwakot, with two constituencies each. Similarly, RSP candidates were also elected in Dolakha, Ramechhap, and Sindhupalchok.

In the 2017 general election, when the CPN-UML and the then CPN (Maoist Centre) had formed an alliance, the UML had won 20 constituencies in the province while the Maoist Centre secured seven.

Despite the left alliance, the Nepali Congress managed to win five constituencies, including four in Kathmandu and one in Rasuwa.

As in previous elections, a candidate from the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party (NWPP) had won one constituency in Bhaktapur.

In the 2022 election, when the Nepali Congress, Maoist Centre, and the then CPN (Unified Socialist) contested the general election in alliance, the UML was reduced to just four constituencies.

Within the alliance, the Nepali Congress won 13 constituencies, including five in Kathmandu, while the Maoist Centre won five and the CPN (Unified Socialist) secured one.

The newly established RSP contested the election shortly after its formation and secured seven seats, five in Kathmandu and two in Chitwan, marking its entry into national politics.

Similarly, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) had won two constituencies-- Chitwan and Makwanpur. The Nepal Workers and Peasants Party also retained its traditional stronghold in Bhaktapur.

However, this time, the Nepali Congress had been reduced to just one constituency, while the traditional strongholds of communist parties had 

also collapsed.

The long-standing leftist legacy in Dolakha district was broken, with a non-leftist party, the RSP, winning the seat in the March 5 elections. 

Likewise, in Bhaktapur Constituency No. 1, considered the traditional stronghold of the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party since 1990, the RSP broke the dominance and secured victory. The NWPP, which had maintained influence in Bhaktapur since the Panchayat era, suffered defeat this time.

Declining RPP

The election also indicates a downward trend for the non-leftist Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP). Although the party had won two constituencies--Makwanpur and Chitwan-- in the 2022 election, most of its candidates lost even their deposits in the latest election.

Deepak Bahadur Singh of the RPP, who had defeated candidates from the UML-aligned RPP Nepal alliance and the Nepali Congress–Maoist Centre alliance in 2022, failed even to retain his deposit in this election. While he had previously been elected with more than 27,000 votes, he secured only 4,574 votes this time.

RPP leader Kamal Thapa, who had contested and lost in Makwanpur Constituency No. 1 in 2017 in alliance with the Nepali Congress and again in 2022 under the UML’s sun election symbol, also lost in this election.

Having previously finished as the runner-up in both elections in Makwanpur, Thapa contested this time from Kathmandu Constituency No. 5, where he secured only 1,922 votes.

UML falls to zero 

In the 2017 election, the CPN-UML had emerged as the largest party in Bagmati Province by winning 20 of the 33 seats. However, in the March 5 polls, the party failed to win even a single seat in Bagmati province.

 In 2017, the UML had won one seat each in Dolakha, Kavrepalanchok, Sindhupalchok, Bhaktapur, Sindhuli, and Nuwakot; both seats in Makwanpur and Dhading; six seats in Kathmandu; and two seats each in Lalitpur and Chitwan, totalling 20 constituencies.

In the 2022 election, UML candidates had managed to win only four constituencies, in Kathmandu, Kavrepalanchok, Makwanpur, and Lalitpur. In the current election, even its traditional strongholds, including Makwanpur, have collapsed.