Among three former Prime Ministers who contested the House of Representatives election on March 5, only Pushpakamal Dahal “Prachanda,” managed to win the seat. Prachanda changed his constituency from Gorkha in 2022 to Rukum East constituency. He is known for changing constituency each time he contests the Parliamentary election.
In 2007 he won from Rolpa 2 and Kathmandu 10, then in 2013 he lost Kathmandu 10 but won from Siraha 5. In 2017, he won from Chitawan 3 then shifted to Gorkha 2 in 2022. This time he chose Rukum East as the safe constituency.
“Prachanda has been changing his constituency time and again seeking a safer one and this time he contested the election from remote Rukum East, one of the strongholds of the erstwhile Maoist party,” remarked Sunil Babu Pant, former Parliament member. “THis time the former Maoist guerrilla commander has not only changed the constituency but also changed the party’s name to Nepali Communist Party,” he added. Prachanda dissolving the CPN-Maoist Centre, changed the name of the party to Nepali Communist Party after merging two dozen fringe parties into it. He is not coordinator of the new party NCP.
Former Prime Minister, Madhav Nepal, the co-coordinator of NCP, has lost the election in Rautahat 1 to RSP’s Rajesh Kumar Chaudhari. RSP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Balendra Shah defeated K.P. Oli chair of CPN-UML and former PM, with a huge margin in Jhapa 5. Baburam Bhattarai another former PM and chair of Pragatishil Lokatantrik Party, had filed nomination from Gorkha 2 constituency, but later he withdrew his name from the race.
