Rastriya Swatantra Party's Bharat Prasad Parajuli Wins Sindhupalchok-1 Seat After Long Career in Social Service and Hydropower

Kathmandu. There is an old and very prevalent saying in our society: there is no greater virtue than providing water. This saying has been made the life's work of Bharat Prasad Parajuli from Sindhupalchok. A candidate for the RSP, he was elected from Sindhupalchok Constituency No. 1 in the House of Representatives election held on Falgun 21. Parajuli secured the victory by leaving behind competitors who had long been entrenched in politics in Sindhupalchok.

Parajuli defeated Maoist Centre's Madhav Sapkota, who won the 2079 election with 30,408 votes, by a margin of 7,085 votes this time. According to the final vote count, RSP's Parajuli received 24,412 votes, while his closest rival, CPN's Sapkota, received only 17,327 votes. Furthermore, UML's Suresh Nepal with 11,961 and Nepali Congress's Jang Bahadur Lama with 11,261 lagged far behind.

In the previous election in this constituency, the RSP had received only 3,503 votes, but this time Parajuli's personal image and the party's wave completely reversed the election results.

Parajuli had established an identity as a social activist by bringing water taps to the drought-stricken settlements of Sindhupalchok at one time.

Born on Bhadra 19, 2025 BS, in the former Bhalefi Rural Municipality-6 of Sindhupalchok, Parajuli holds a Master's degree in Sociology from Tribhuvan University. His journey began not with politics or business, but purely with social service.

At one time, there was a compulsion in the dry villages of Sindhupalchok to carry water from the river by walking for hours. In that era when the presence of government mechanisms was weak, Parajuli led the drinking water campaign starting from 2055 BS. He initiated this campaign by bringing taps to more than 60 households in Jogidada of the former Mankha VDC for the first time.

As the General Secretary of the Integrated Rural Development and Environmental Conservation Forum, he successfully operated drinking water, sanitation, literacy, and income-generating programs in dozens of settlements including Mandra, Piskar's Jaljale, Dhuskun, Thumpakhar, Chilaune, Dhuskot, Sikre-Marming, Nagpuje, and Simle for about 7 years. Now, the voters in those areas have sent the same Parajuli to the parliament, the place for policy making, by giving him their valuable votes.

His water journey, which began with the campaign to bring drinking water to the villages, shifted to energy development. He has been active in the hydropower sector for more than two decades.

Parajuli, who is directly or indirectly associated with more than 80 hydropower projects across Nepal, was also a central committee member of the Independent Power Producers' Association, Nepal (IPPAN).

Currently, he is the main promoter and chairman of the Integrated Trading Company and the 45 MW capacity Brahmayani Khola Hydropower Project under construction in Jugal Rural Municipality-2. Through this project, he has provided direct employment to more than 200 locals.

Believing that the benefits of development should remain in the village, he has put forward a plan to make local residents partners in hydropower through promoter shares in the coming days.

From UML Background to RSP Wave

Parajuli, who has been interested in political activities since his early days, was active in CPN-UML politics for a long time. Although established in social service and business, he had not held public office.

However, he had a vision of bringing development, good governance, and results-oriented politics to the country. With that vision, he ultimately became the RSP candidate for Sindhupalchok-1 and achieved victory.

Although he lacks parliamentary experience, management capability, business leadership, and deep knowledge of the energy sector are Parajuli's greatest assets. By connecting his private sector experience with policy-making and politics, he has made energy development, local job creation, infrastructure expansion, and sustainable economic development his main agenda. How much he implements this in practice remains to be seen.

Parajuli, who quenched the thirst of the people by bringing water taps to every village in Sindhupalchok yesterday, has reached the parliament, the forum for national policy-making, today, having received the invaluable votes of those same people.