Sarlahi. Ram Pravesh Chaudhary of Dhankaul, Sarlahi, said that the atmosphere of the election scheduled for March 4 is different from the past.

Chaudhary claimed that the environment in Madhes including Sarlahi 4 is different due to Nepali Congress President Gagan Kumar Thapa. Chaudhary said that although the election would have created an atmosphere due to the Nepali Congress and other parties in other times, this time the situation has become different after Thapa himself became a candidate in Sarlahi.

“Despite not being the NC president, there was a different kind of craze for Gagan Thapa in the society,” Chaudhary says, “Now he has become the president by holding a special general convention with so much courage.” According to Chaudhary, this has increased the trust in him in the society. He says that Gagan Thapa’s ‘whim’ has spread all over Madhes. This shows that Gagan’s popularity has increased.

Thapa has already returned to Kathmandu after completing the first phase of election campaigning for Sarlahi-4. Local levels like Dhankaul, Ramnagar, Balra, Barahathawa, Bishnu and Basbariya of Sarlahi fall in this region. In the first phase, Thapa stayed there for four days and held discussions with the local leaders of all the wards and conducted more than 12 corner meetings and door-to-door programmes.

Bijay Yadav of Ramnagar claimed that there is enthusiasm among the civic level after Thapa himself came to the area. “I had only heard about him before,” Yadav says, “But now after interacting with him, my faith in him has grown.” Not only the Nepali Congress, but all sections of the constituency are positive towards Gagan Thapa. ‘

A liaison office has been opened here after Thapa came as a candidate. During his campaign, he said that the Parliamentary Liaison Office will also continue to run here. Which seems to be a problem for the citizens here. Citizens who had previously visited politicians’ homes to meet them are now proud to be able to tell their MPs about their grievances and actions through parliamentary offices.

Various teams have started carrying out field studies about the problems of the people of the district even before Thapa was elected. The society believes that Thapa has taken the initiative to solve the local problems.

Bishnu Thakur of Basbariya said that he has never seen any parliament working in such a systematic manner before. “We had only heard about Gagan Thapa,” Thakur says, “He did not attain this political height at such a young age.” According to Thakur, the talks held by NC President Thapa in Sarlahi regarding the constituency have not only enthused the people but also enthused them.

Sarlahi 4 Traditional stronghold of Congress

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Sarlahi-4 is considered to be the traditional stronghold of the Nepali Congress. Mahantha Thakur, who won three elections from 2048 to 2056, had left the Nepali Congress and had been contesting from this constituency. He won the elections in 2070 and 2074 on a Nepali Congress ticket and in 2079 BS as an independent candidate.

In the first Constituent Assembly election held in 2008, Shiva Pujan Raya of the then Madhesi People’s Rights Forum was elected from Sarlahi-4. In the 2079 BS, NC’s Nagendra Kumar had contested from the alliance of Nepali Congress and the then CPN (Maoist Center). Nagendra garnered 18,253 votes while Singh garnered 20,017 votes.

CPN (Maoist Centre) leader Shiva Pujan Raya had fielded his daughter Madhumala Kumari Yadav as an independent candidate. Yadav garnered 14,622 votes. Shiva Pujan’s son Amis Yadav is now the UML candidate. Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) candidate Rakesh Mishra came in fourth with 5,813 votes.

In the proportional representation category, the Nepali Congress was first. The Nepali Congress bagged 16,028 votes while the Janamat Party bagged 12,500 votes. Whereas the direct candidate of the Janamat Party, Ram Babu Ray, got only 3,400 votes.

In this constituency, the Maoists got the third highest number of votes in the proportional representation category. UML had garnered 9,471 votes while the party had bagged 9,700 votes. Nepali Congress has won the highest number of wards in the district. The Nepali Congress had won in 19 wards while the CPN (Maoist Centre) had won 12 wards. Similarly, UML won 10 wards, LSP 8 and JSP 2.

The Congress also has a large number of votes received by the ward chairpersons of these parties. The votes received by the ward chairpersons of the Nepali Congress are 23,143. The Maoist Centre is second in the votes of ward chairpersons. It had secured 18,524 votes. The total number of votes received by the LSP candidates in the ward is 14,227. Similarly, the UML’s ward chair candidates received 11,479 votes. The JSP got 6,786 votes.

In Sarlahi-4, Thapa has no problem winning the election. “It seems that he will be easily elected from here,” said Sudarshan Mishra, a local teacher, adding, “There is enthusiasm among the citizens of Madhes including Sarlahi after he came here as a candidate.” ‘

According to teacher Mishra, the sky is spreading all over Madhes. However, the craze for Gagan Thapa has increased after the Nepali Congress has proposed Gagan Thapa as the next Prime Minister. He is not only in Madhes but all over the country. According to his plan, the Congress is contesting the elections. Leaving his comfortable Kathmandu constituency number 4 and descending to the Terai, it shows that Gagan is popular everywhere.