Nepali Congress inches closer to majority

PTI

Kathmandu, November 22

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 latest trends.

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

The NC-led alliance includes CPN-Maoist Centre and CPN-Unified Socialist parties.

Elections to the House of Representatives (HoR) and seven provincial assemblies were held on Sunday.

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.

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 the House of Representatives election from Kathmandu Constituency No 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.

The 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.

Meanwhile, CPN-Maoist chairman Pushpakamal Dahal “Prachanda” is leading in Gorkha-2 constituency. He has so far bagged 7,057 votes.

FormerPM and CPN-UML chairman KP Sharma Oli is leading in Jhapa 5 constituency with 15,510 votes against his nearest NC rival Khagendra Adhikari.

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