NC-Maoist alliance candidate Dahal elected mayor of Bharatpur Metropolitan City

(Narayan Adhikari)

Chitwan - CPN (Maoist Centre) candidate Renu Dahal has been elected to the post of Mayor of Bharatpur Metropolitan City-19. She garnered 43, 127 votes to defeat her nearest rival Devi Gyawali from the CPN (UML) who got 42,924 votes. The poll results were announced a while ago.

Dahal defeated Gyawali with a margin of 203 votes. Gyawali, who was leading the vote tally until the counting of votes of Ward No 19, relegated in the vote counting of Ward No 20.

RPP's mayoral candidate Badri Timilsina got 6,842 votes.

Similarly, Nepali Congress candidate Parbati Shah has been elected the Deputy Mayor with 47,197 votes.

Her closest contender Dibya Sharma Acharya of the UML got 39,525 votes. RPP's deputy mayoral candidate Reena Gurung polled 7,252 votes.

The UML candidates have won in 14 wards, Nepali Congress candidates in 12 wards and Maoist Centre candidates in three wards. There are 29 wards in the Bharatpur Metropolis.

Bharatpur Metropolitan City is the sole metropolis among four metropolises to elect female candidates to the posts of mayor and deputy-mayor.

The election of the Bharatpur Metropolis had grabbed the wider attention after some party representatives reportedly torn 90 ballots dropped in the Ward number 19 on May 28 amidst the counting. The election was held on May 31.

The matter later had reached the Supreme Court with the registration of a writ petition against the Election Commission decision to conduct the re-election in the Ward 19. The SC on July 30 quashed the petition, paving the way for holding the re-election which was held Friday.

Dahal's victory in the mayor post was possible due to support from the Nepali Congress which has had its influence in the Metropolitan.

Giving her reaction to the RSS shortly after the announcement of poll results, Dahal said she was all committed to making the city prosperous, systematic and a model one. She vowed to work in the common good of the people no matter from which party she had contested for.

She was born on July 5, 1976 in the then Bhimsen Nagar of Shibanagar VDC (present Bharatpur Metropolitan-19) as the second child to Pushpa Kamal Dahal, CPN (Maoist Center) Chair and former Prime Minister, and Sita Dahal. She had joined the then CPN (Maoist) in 2051 BS and had gone underground in 2052 BS .

She was the member (Proportional Representation) to the first Constituent Assembly. But she lost to Nepali Congress leader Prakash Man Singh in the second CA election (FPTP) from the Kathmandu Constituency-1.