Myagdi. With only 4 days left for the House of Representatives election, the movement of candidates and party leaders and cadres has increased in the villages of Myagdi.

The schedule of gatherings, door-to-door campaigns, social media publicity and release of manifestos has been completed. After listening to the candidates and leaders of the political parties, the people have started asking the question, “Have the previous promises been fulfilled or not?”

In Myagdi, which has only one constituency for the House of Representatives, competing political parties and candidates have made old issues like development, employment and infrastructure the main agenda. But if we look at the statistics of the local level, some of the schemes that were committed in the previous elections are still limited to paper.

Mahabir Pun, who contested as an independent candidate, made reforms in education, innovation and innovation, employment and income generation his main agenda. Narayan Sapkota, a voter of Beni Municipality-2, said, “The political parties and people’s representatives come forward to take credit for the budget given by the government and the completed development works, but they blame others for the incomplete and incomplete projects, projects and the works that have not been completed with the promise of the past.”

“Sweet promises like upgradation of Beni-Jomsom road under Kaligandaki corridor, infrastructure development for tourism development, lack of facilities despite being declared a mountainous district, sweet dreams of agriculture and industry, end of unemployment, youth self-employment, promises of adding infrastructure and human resources in education and health, upgradation of rural roads, drinking water in every household and irrigation in farms are heard but never fulfilled,” he said. The political parties have made these issues their agenda in this election as well,” said Pramesh Sen, a youth voter of Mangala Rural Municipality-5, adding, “We want to read and listen to the progress report of the past works rather than listen to the speeches and see the upcoming manifesto.” ”

The manifesto unveiled before the 2079 BS elections had mentioned the issues of road upgradation, tourism development, expansion of drinking water and irrigation and employment generation of youths. However, according to the records of the District Coordination Committee, the implementation of some projects has been slow despite the allocation of budget.

“Infrastructure development is considered the standard of development in the district, but there is no debate among the political parties and people’s representatives on social problems, caste-based discrimination, awareness expansion, opportunities for youths in villages and districts and their solutions,” said Teb Bahadur Garbuja, a voter of Dowa of Annapurna Rural Municipality-1. No one asks back after the election. ”

In Myagdi, the expenditure under the development budget is very low. If we look at the current fiscal year, even after seven months, the development expenditure has been minimal. According to the Office of Fund and Financial Comptroller, the federal government has spent Rs 1.88 billion so far out of Rs 3.43 billion 59 lakh 76 thousand 512 in recurrent expenditure.

According to Kolenika Myagdi, out of the total capital expenditure of Rs 36.23 million, Rs 72,25,555 has been spent so far. As far as capital expenditure is concerned, only 19 per cent has been spent in seven months. Min Bahadur Baniya, an officer of Kolenika, said that 54.8 percent of the current expenditure was spent. Overall, 54.44 per cent of the budget has been spent in the district.

The situation of the budget of the state government is also the same. Out of the current budget of Rs 470 million for Myagdi, Rs 165.21 million has been spent so far.

Similarly, Rs 82.85 crore has been allocated for capital expenditure and Rs 202.8 million has been spent so far. A total of Rs 368 million 34 thousand 640 has been spent in the state so far. In total, only 28 per cent of the province’s budget has been spent. In the past years, around 60 percent of the development budget was spent.

Voters want to hear from the leaders of the political parties about the reasons for the lack of development budget and incomplete projects. “Issue-based debates have intensified in Myagdi this election. This time the youths have started seeking facts about their past works through social networking sites and this is a good practice,” said Yadav Rijal, a political analyst and youth intellectual.

In the past, the leaders of the political parties here had different words on the issue of incomplete development projects, but the intention remained the same. According to the party leaders, development is not possible in one term. We have started the process and now it seems that the results are in the stage of showing. Political analysts and intellectuals here accuse the parties of “political recycling”.

As the election activities have increased, questions have also increased in Myagdi. The candidates are dreaming of new dreams, but the voters are asking for the old reckoning. Raju KC, principal of Mount Everest Boarding Secondary School, said that this election is not only a competition of publicity but also a test of credibility.

Reverse view seen in the election campaign

As the deadline given by the Election Commission to the parties and candidates for election campaigning is coming to an end, some strange and some adverse scenes have been seen in Myagdi. Some of these scenes are interesting and some are also very commendable. During the election, there were allegations that the parties and candidates were distributing money, luring and making assurances to influence the voters, but this time the opposite scenario has been seen in Myagdi. Here, the candidates have not given money to the voters, but the voters have given financial assistance to the candidates as election expenses.

Independent candidate Mahabir Pun has received financial support from voters and well-wishers citing election expenses. “People have given Rs 15 lakh while roaming in the villages for election campaigning, but we have not been able to see the bank statement of how much well-wishers have sent from abroad,” said Pun, an independent candidate.

Likewise, Nepali Congress candidate Karna Bahadur Bhandari, CPN (UML)’s Hari Krishna Shrestha, CPN (Maoist) candidate Arjun Thapa and CPN (Maoist Centre)’s Chhetra Bahadur Ghimire have also received financial assistance for election expenses such as food, transportation and publicity.

Real political rite of passage

Voters said that the candidates have also displayed good political culture during the election campaign this time. Mohan Acharya, a youth entrepreneur of Beni Bazaar, said that the political parties sitting together on the same platform during the election campaign, the candidates describing the good aspects of the rival candidates, using civilized and courteous language, the rival candidates hugging each other and wishing them good luck for the victory, said Mohan Acharya, a youth entrepreneur of Beni Bazaar.

UML candidate Hari Krishna Shrestha and CPN (Maoist Centre) candidate Chhetra Bahadur Ghimire shared their views during the election campaigning in North Myagdi.

Similarly, independent candidate Mahabir Pun wished Nepali Congress candidate Karna Bahadur Bhandari for winning the election. Nepali Congress candidate Bhandari took blessings from independent candidate Pun over a cup of tea at Beni Bazaar.

Here is the picture of the past election

Looking at the results of the last three decades, there is no stable result of any political party in Myagdi. In 2079 BS, Kham Bahadur Garbuja (Khambir) of the Nepali Congress was elected to the House of Representatives from the alliance of political parties including Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Center) and Unified Socialist. Hari Bhandari and Resham Jugjali (Subin) of the CPN (Maoist Centre) from the alliance of Nepali Congress and the then CPN (Maoist Centre) won the Provincial Assembly constituencies (a) and (b). In the 2017 parliamentary elections, CPN-UML’s Bhupendra Thapa won from the then left alliance, while Binod KC of CPN (Maoist Centre) and Naradevi Pun of CPN (Maoist Centre) won from constituency 1 (a) and Naradevi Pun of CPN-UML won from constituency 1 (b). In the second Constituent Assembly election held in 2070 BS, CPN-UML’s incumbent Gandaki Province Chairman Nawaraj Sharma was elected.

Govinda Poudel of the CPN (Maoist Centre) was elected to the House of Representatives in the first Constituent Assembly election in 2006, Narayan Singh Pun of the Nepali Congress in the 2056 parliamentary election and Nil Bahadur Pun of the CPN-UML before that. In the 2017 parliamentary elections, the CPN-UML had secured 18,273 votes, the Nepali Congress 13,693, the CPN (Maoist Centre) 9,070, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) 3,579, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) 1,253 and the CPN (Unified Socialist) 285.

In 2079 BS, NC’s Kham Bahadur Garbuja, who had the support of CPN (Maoist Centre), Unified Socialist and Janamorcha, got 24,021 votes while his nearest rival Hari Krishna Shrestha got 20,189 votes.

A total of 12 candidates including one independent candidate are contesting from different political parties in Myagdi. Hari Krishna Shrestha of CPN-UML, Karna Bahadur Bhandari of Nepali Congress and Arjun Bahadur Thapa of Nepali Communist Party are in the fray. Similarly, Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP)’s Dambar Bahadur Subedi, Rastriya Janamorcha’s Chhem Bahadur BK, Shram Sanskriti Party’s Binod Rana, Nepal Communist Party (Maoist)’s Chhetra Bahadur Ghimire, Mangal National Organization’s Bhim Bahadur Lama, Pragatisheel Loktantrik Party’s Devendra Kami, National Republican Nepal’s Tul Prasad Garbuja and independent candidate are contesting again.

A total of 86,397 voters are eligible for the elections in Myagdi. Of them, 44,064 are female, 42,332 are male. According to the District Election Office, there are 82 polling stations and 120 polling centres in the district.