Two Leftist Parties, Nepal Workers and Peasants Party and Rastriya Janamorcha, Fail to Secure Seats in New House of Representatives Election

Kathmandu. Two leftist parties, the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party (NWPP) and the Rastriya Janamorcha (RJ), will not have a presence in the new House of Representatives. The tsunami wave seen in favor of the new political party, the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), in the House of Representatives election held on Thursday has endangered the existence of these two leftist parties. 

NWPP and RJ, which played the role of the permanent opposition in parliament, failed to win a single seat in this election. In Bhaktapur-1, the stronghold of the CPN (UML), where Prem Suwal of NWPP has been winning since 2048 BS, Rukes Ranjit of RSP won by securing 33,436 votes, defeating Suwal. His closest rival, Prem Suwal of NWPP, received 28,147 votes. 

In this constituency, Chairman Narayan Man Bijuchha had won in 2048, 2051, 2064, and 2070 BS. Suwal had won in 2074 and 2079 BS. Even when the two major leftist parties, CPN-UML and Maoist, merged in 2074 BS, they could not defeat NWPP, despite the wave seen for the CPN (Maoist Centre) in Bhaktapur-1 in 2064 BS. 

While a crowd of people vied for ministerial and state positions by winning one or two seats, NWPP was only interested in parliament and not in other areas. NWPP had been developing Bhaktapur, where it won, on a communist model. The fall of its stronghold due to the recent electoral tsunami has forced NWPP to rethink its strategy from a new perspective. 

After the political change in 2046 BS, NWPP won Bhaktapur-1 and 2 in the election held in 2048 BS. It won 4 seats in 2051 BS, 5 in 2056 BS, 5 in 2064 BS, 4 in 2070 BS, and one seat each in 2074 and 2079 BS. 

Similar to NWPP, RJ, which had been monitoring the government from parliament, faced its first break from parliament this time. This party had maintained a continuous presence in parliament since 2048 BS. This time, Krishna Prasad Sharma Adhikari of RJ contested from Baglung-1 in an electoral alliance with the Communist Party of Nepal, but he was defeated by Sushil Khadka of RSP. 

Adhikari was limited to fourth place with 4,521 votes. In this constituency, Sushil Khadka of RSP won with 20,927 votes. 

Bhim Bahadur Shrees Rana of the Congress was in second place with 11,944 votes. Hirabahadur Khatri of UML received 8,640 votes in third place. 

In this election held after the 'Genji' movement in Bhadra, the Congress, UML, and Maoist parties, which dominated the power for 34 years, have been pushed back. So far, RSP has won 35 seats and maintained a lead in 84 seats. Congress has won 6 seats and maintained a lead in 9 seats. UML has won two seats and taken a lead in 9 seats. The Communist Party of Nepal, which won two seats, has taken a lead in 7 seats.