Nepali Congress-Led Coalition Inches Towards Majority In Nepal Polls

The main opposition Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) has so far bagged three seats and is leading in 38 others.

Kathmandu: A man casts his vote during the Nepal Parliamentary and Provincial Assembly elections, in Kathmandu.

The Nepali Congress-led coalition was on Tuesday inching closer to securing a majority in the parliamentary elections in Nepal, with the ruling alliance winning or leading in nearly 75 seats, according to the latest trends.

The main opposition Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) has so far bagged three seats and is leading in 38 others.

Nepali Congress has won 6 seats and has been leading in 46 others. Its alliance partners CPN-Maoist Centre has been leading in 17 seats, while CPN-Unified Socialist and Lokatantrik Samajwadi Party in 2 seats each.

Elections to the House of Representatives (HoR) and seven provincial assemblies were held on Sunday. The counting of votes started on Monday.

Out of 275 Members of Parliament, 165 will be elected through direct voting, while the remaining 110 will be elected through a proportional electoral system. Similarly, out of a total of 550 members of the provincial assemblies, 330 will be elected directly and 220 will be elected through the proportional method.

According to Election Commission officials, the Nepali Congress opened its account in Kathmandu with senior NC leader Prakash Man Singh winning the Kathmandu 1 constituency. Singh secured 7,140 votes against his nearest rival Ravindra Mishra from the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) who secured 7,011 votes.

NC General Secretary Gagan Thapa won from Kathmandu Constituency-4 by a margin of about 7,500 votes. He defeated Rajan Bhattarai of CPM-UML. While Thapa bagged 21,294 votes, Bhattarai got 13,853 votes.

Prime Minister and NC president Sher Bahadur Deuba is leading by 6,124 votes against his nearest contender Sagar Dhakal in Dadeldhura. Deuba has so far secured 13,126 votes, while independent candidate Dhakal garnered 7,002 votes.

NC also won a HoR seat in Manang district with Tek Bahadur Gurung winning the election by securing 2,547 votes against his nearest rival Palden Gurung of CPM-UML who secured 2,247 votes.

The party also won a HoR in Mustang constituency with Yogendra Thakali defeating Prem Prasad Tulachan of CPN-UML with a margin of 914 votes. Thakali got 3,992 votes, while Tulachan bagged 3,078 votes as per the final results.

Mohan Acharya of Nepali Congress won his seat in Rasuwa district constituency. He secured 18,325 votes and defeated Chhowang Tenjing Tamang of CPN-UML who secured 8,614.

Pradeep Poudyal, popular youth leader of Nepali Congress, won Kathmandu-5 constituency after defeating CPN-UML stalwart Ishwor Pokharel with a huge margin. Poudyal secured 15,237 votes against 10,172 votes of Pokharel, the CPN-UML vice president, who is known as the right hand of the party chairman Oli.

The main opposition CPN-UML bagged its first seat from Lalitpur-2 constituency where Prem Bahadur Maharjan defeated Sudin Shakya of Hamro Nepali Party by a margin of 6,139 votes. Maharjan bagged 15,025 votes, while his closest rival Shakya totalled 8,886 votes.

Krishna Gopal Shrestha of CPN-UML won the HoR seat from Kathmandu-9 constituency. He secured 11,956 votes against his nearest rival Tek Bahadur Pokharel of Rashtriya Swatantra Party who secured 10,961 votes.

Ambar Bahadur Rayamajhi of UML won Udayapur-2 constituency by securing 15,251 votes against Jagannath Khatiwada, who secured 12,893.

Meanwhile, CPN-Maoist chairman Pushpakamal Dahal “Prachanda” is leading in Gorkha-2 constituency. He has so far bagged 7,057 votes against his nearest rival Kavindra Burlakoti of RSP who got 1,929 votes.

Former prime minister and CPN-UML chairman Oli is leading in Jhapa-5 constituency with 15,510 votes against his nearest NC rival Khagendra Adhikari who so far secured 8,955 votes.

Nagarik Unmukti Party candidate Gangaram Chaudhary won the HoR election from Kailali-3 constituency. He got 23,120 votes, defeating Kundan Chaudhary of CPN-Maoist Centre who secured 17,749 votes.

According to Election Commission officials, Rashtriya Swatantra Party is leading in 10 seats, Rastriya Prajatantra Party in 6 and Nagarik Unmukti Party in 3 seats.

Meanwhile, CPN-UML has received the highest total proportionate votes - 1,48,516 - followed by Nepali Congress' 1,29,285 and Rastriya Swotantra Party's 66,236 votes.

CPN-Maoist Centre secured fourth position securing 64,236 votes followed by RPP, with 34,804 votes, Janamat Party with 12,167, JSP, 11,585 and CPN-Unified Socialist 7,576 votes. 

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)