Kathmandu: Nepali Congress, which emerged as the largest party in Nepal’s House of Representatives after the 2022 general election, has suffered a dramatic decline in the election held on March 5. Several senior leaders of the party, including its president and key office bearers, were defeated, highlighting a sharp erosion of its electoral strength.
Party president Gagan Thapa, who rose to the leadership after replacing Sher Bahadur Deuba through a special party convention, lost in Sarlahi-4 to Amaresh Kumar Singh of the Rastriya Swatantra Party. Thapa was defeated by a margin of more than 13,000 votes.
Both of the party’s general secretaries also failed to secure victory. Gururaj Ghimire lost in Morang-4 to Rastriya Swatantra Party candidate Santosh Rajbanshi, while Pradeep Paudel was defeated in Kathmandu-5 by RSP candidate Sasmit Pokharel.
The setbacks extended to the party’s deputy general secretaries as well. Farmullah Mansur was defeated in Bara-3 by RSP’s Arvind Shah, while Dina Upadhyay lost in Makwanpur-1 to Prakash Gautam by a margin of nearly 22,000 votes.
In Lalitpur-1, deputy general secretary Uday Shumsher Rana was defeated by RSP candidate Buddharatna Maharjan by roughly 10,000 votes.
Similarly, deputy general secretary Karna Bahadur Budha was defeated in Dolpa-1 by a candidate from the Communist Party of Nepal and finished third in the race.
In Dang-1, another deputy general secretary, Yogendra Chaudhary, also lost his seat, defeated by RSP candidate Bedraj Pathak by a margin of 27,000 votes.
Meanwhile, in Bajhang-1, deputy general secretary Prakash Rasaili “Snehi” was defeated by Ain Bahadur Mahara of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) by around 2,200 votes.
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