Majority of Lumbini Provincial Lawmakers Who Resigned for Federal Polls Fail to Secure Seats

Butwal. Five candidates, including four Provincial Assembly members and one deputy mayor of a metropolitan city, hastily resigned just a few days before the nomination filing for the House of Representatives elections in Lumbini Province. Most of these leaders, who left their Provincial Assembly seats with a year and a half of their term remaining to contest the federal elections, failed to achieve the expected results.

Only one out of the four individuals who resigned from the Lumbini Provincial Assembly to contest the House of Representatives elections has been successful. Kanhaiya Baniya from Rupandehi, Dhan Bahadur Maski from Dang, Dharmabhadur Chaudhary from Bardiya, and Krishna KC 'Namuna' from Banke had resigned from their Provincial Assembly membership to file nominations for the House of Representatives elections. Similarly, Kamaruddin Rai, the Deputy Mayor of Nepalgunj Sub-Metropolitan City in Banke, also resigned from his post to become a federal candidate. However, among them, only Kanhaiya Baniya, who contested from Rupandehi-4, emerged victorious.

All others were defeated, and some even forfeited their security deposits. Among those whose deposits were forfeited is Krishna KC 'Namuna' from Banke Constituency No. 2, representing the Pragatisheel Loktantrik Party. She secured only 1240 votes. Kamaruddin Rai, who contested from the same district's Constituency No. 2, also forfeited his deposit. Rai, who left the post of Deputy Mayor of Nepalgunj Sub-Metropolitan City to contest for the House of Representatives from JSP, could not even reclaim his deposit, securing only 908 votes.

Likewise, Dharmabhadur Chaudhary, elected from Bardiya-2 under the Nagarik Unmukti Party, resigned from his Provincial Assembly membership and contested from Bardiya-2 on behalf of the Ujyalo Nepal Party. Chaudhary, a former minister who left the Nagarik Unmukti Party of Resham Chaudhary at the last moment for a new party, finished in fifth place with 4,472 votes.

Among those who lost the opportunity to contest the federal elections after giving up their Provincial Assembly seats in Lumbini Province is also Dhan Bahadur Maski of the CPN (Maoist Centre). Maski, a former minister in the province, had to settle for fourth place in Dang-3, securing 9,328 votes. These leaders are facing criticism on social media for abandoning their responsibilities mid-term to contest the elections.

Krishi Azad, a writer and analyst from Butwal, commented that when representatives resign their posts midway for the lure of a federal position after being elected by the people for a five-year term, it shows a lack of honesty towards the people's mandate. He stated that leaving before completing the term is akin to betraying one's voters.

How did Baniya win?

Kanhaiya Baniya, elected in the 2079 Provincial Assembly elections from the Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (LSP), has now been elected to the House of Representatives from the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP). At that time, when Baniya was a candidate for the Provincial Assembly from LSP, Sarbendranath Shukla of the same party won the House of Representatives seat. Now, Baniya has defeated former minister Sarbendranath Shukla and Pramod Kumar Yadav, who was elected in 2074 BS.

The 36-year-old Baniya from Marchwari Rural Municipality won by securing 28,066 votes. His closest competitor, Pramod Kumar Yadav, the candidate from the CPN (UML), received 20,262 votes. Furthermore, Ashutosh Mishra, the candidate from the Nepali Congress, received 15,613 votes, while Sarbendranath Shukla of the Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP), Nepal, was limited to third place with 3,410 votes.

Baniya stated that he felt the need to change his current political role, which led him to leave the Provincial Assembly for the federal level, and that the people supported him. He mentioned that local voters understood his commitment to contributing to the development of the Marchwari region and the sentiment of the younger generation, leading to his victory. He added that the people in Marchwari have suffered many problems because there was no leader raising their voice for development in the federal parliament previously.