Rastriya Swatantra Party Elects New Gandaki Province Chairman

Pokhara. Naveen Tripathi has been elected as the chairman of the Gandaki Province Rastriya Swatantra Party, defeating the incumbent chairman and a member of the House of Representatives. Tripathi won the election by securing 234 votes, while his closest competitor, incumbent chairman Rajan Gautam, received 182 votes. Chairman candidate Madhav Kandel received only 11 votes and Haribahadur Karki received 2 votes.

The party's statute has a provision that the winning candidate must secure more than 50 percent of the votes, and Tripathi crossed this threshold in the first round. The vote counting was completed on Saturday morning, following voting that began around 11 PM on Friday night.

Similarly, 51 people had filed nominations for provincial members. Out of these, 33 will be elected, including from various clusters. Among the 51 aspirants, 28 are candidates for regional provincial members. From these 28, one person will be elected from each of the 18 constituencies of Gandaki Province. 23 candidates filed nominations for inclusive provincial members. Although 15 people have been elected from the inclusive category, their details are yet to be released.

Among the 51 aspirants for provincial members, 12 have been elected unopposed. From the regional provincial members, Mina Sharma Acharya from Baglung 1, Manoj Gurung from Gorkha 1, Balbahadur Ghale from Gorkha 2, Bijay Parajuli from Lamjung, Tarabahadur Karki from Myagdi, and Suryamani Poudel from Tanahu 1 have been elected unopposed.

In the provincial inclusive members category, Sita Kumari Aryal, Krishnakumari Adhikari (Anisha), and Ramamaya Bastakoti were elected unopposed from Khas Arya women. Samiun Nisha from Muslim women, Gita Bishwakarma from Dalit women, and Yadunath Sigdel from disabled Khas Arya were elected unopposed.