Sher Bahadur Deuba-led alliance leads in Nepal poll

 New Delhi, November 23

The pro-India Sher Bahadur Deuba-led Nepali Congress is leading the vote count in direct voting seats while its rival Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), led by KP Oli, is leading in the proportionate representation seats in the elections to Nepal Parliament held on November 20. Though almost all established leaders, including Deuba, Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda”, have won, neither of the alliances led by the two main parties looks to be in a position to form a government on its own. An upstart party each from the hills and the plains (Madhes) has done surprisingly well in the vote count so far. In fact, the relatively poor showing by both the big two has led to demands for the replacement of Deuba and Oli, respectively, thus imparting more uncertainty to the political scene.

In the ongoing vote count till Wednesday evening, the Nepali Congress is ahead in 44 seats, UML in 41, the newly formed Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) in seven, NC ally CPN (Unified Socialist) in six and others on 20. As many as 165 of the total 275 seats in Parliament are elected through direct voting.

Under proportionate voting (which accounts for 110 of the 275 seats), the UML has got over 2.20 lakh votes and the ruling NC is in second place with 2 lakh votes. The RSP has crossed one lakh votes while its president Ravi Lamichhane has won his seat under direct voting system. All the party’s candidates are under 40 but a cloud hangs over Lamichhane’s citizenship. CPN (Maoist) led by Prachanda, which has tied up with the NC, is in the fourth place.

All the direct voting results will be announced by Monday and the results of proportional representation by December 8. Like the Lamichhane-led RSP, another newly formed party—Janmat Party—led by CK Raut is doing well in the Terai (Madhes) at the expense of the regional big two—Loktantrik Samajbadi Party (LSP) and Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP). In fact, Raut, who wants an autonomous Madhes, has emerged as a giant killer by defeating JSP president and former Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav.