Indira Rana Magar Defeats Former Speaker Devraj Ghimire by Wide Margin in Jhapa Election

Biratnagar. In the 2079 House of Representatives election, CPN-UML leader Devraj Ghimire was elected from Jhapa 2. He secured 28,716 votes at that time. 

Elected as a member of the House of Representatives for the first time, he was made the Speaker by UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli. However, while holding the position of Speaker, he faced criticism for not fulfilling that role impartially.

On the other hand, the Rastriya Swatantra Party, which emerged as a new party in the same House of Representatives, sent Indira Rana Magar as a proportional representation lawmaker. Rana was also made the Deputy Speaker with the support of the UML and others. Both Ghimire and Rana were from Jhapa. 

However, circumstances did not remain the same forever. The UML and Nepali Congress, holding power and influence, accused Deputy Speaker Rana of human trafficking. The parliament was heated by the issue of her writing a letter to the US Embassy requesting assistance in arranging visa times for some youths to travel to America. 

There was even preparation in parliament to bring an impeachment motion against her. But the internal plan of the Congress and UML did not succeed. Now, the public has given a collective answer to all those accusations in favor of Rana. 

When the parliament was dissolved after the Janji rebellion and new elections were held, Indira Rana Magar defeated the then Speaker Devraj Ghimire by a huge margin. According to the final results published late on Saturday, Magar received 60,110 votes, while Ghimire secured only 11,368 votes. The difference between them is 48,742 votes. 

Rana, born in Arjunadhara, Jhapa in 2027 BS, had a simple childhood. A postgraduate in Sociology, she volunteered at the human rights organization of litterateur Parijat. During a prison visit at that time, after seeing the dire situation of the children of inmates, Indira registered the non-governmental organization Bandi Sahayata Nepal and started a campaign to provide education, rights, and a safe childhood to the children of women serving jail sentences. 

Active in this field for 3 decades, she has rescued hundreds of children. The service she started in Kathmandu 22 years ago by renting two rooms is now operating child protection homes in places like Jhapa, Palpa, and Kathmandu. She also runs two primary schools to educate those children. 

During the Covid pandemic, she distributed food to hundreds of people who were starving due to lack of income. In 2005, she received the 'Ashoka Fellow' award, followed by the Asia Public Service Award in 2009, and in 2014, she received the World Children Honorary Award alongside Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai and American John Wood. In 2017, the BBC included her in the BBC 100 Women list, making her one of the world's inspiring women.