As the poll results came out on Monday, the ruling party got another seat in the CA, breaking the dominance of leftist parties in Kathmandu-2 for the first time since 1991 while retaining two seats it had won in the November 19 CA vote.

The NC also won in Chitwan-4 and Kailali-6, while coalition partner CPN-UML retained its grip on Bardiya-1. The NC strength in the CA has reached 197 while the UML settles for 175.

By-polls were held after Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, UML senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, NC senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bam Dev Gautam, who had won from two constituencies each, vacated the Chitwan-4, Kathmandu-2, Kailali-6 and Bardiya-1 seats, respectively.

In Kathmandu-2, NC’s Deepak Kuinkel defeated UML candidate Krishna Gopal Shrestha by a margin of 4,779 votes. According to the Election Commission, Kuilkel secured 18,200 votes whereas Shrestha got 13,421. UCPN (Maoist) candidate Leela Mani Pokharel came a distant third with 4,604 votes.

It was the only constituency in the Capital where leftist parties maintained their stranglehold for over two decades. Since the 1991 general election, the UML has won the seat six times while UCPN (M) had victory in 2008. NC candidate Ram Krishna Ghimire won in Chitwan-4 with 20,318 votes while his closest rival, UML’s Parbati Rawal garnered 17,272 votes.

 In Kailali-6, NC’s Pushkar Nath Ojha won with 14,784 votes against 11,959 votes of UML’s Maheshwor Pathak. In Bardiya-1, UML candidate Shyam Prasad Dhakal was elected with 16,696 votes.

Compared to the November 19 polls, UCPN (M) got lesser votes in all the four constituencies. The party stood third except in Kailali-6 where it was relegated to the fifth position.