Political parties in Dhading may have intensified their election campaigns, but there is one particular place where the pre-election mood has not yet set in. 

Brusbang is a small hill settlement situated in the Mahabharat Range that can be reached after a nine hours’ drive off the Prithvi Highway. The place is inhabited by the Chepangs, a minority ethnic community, who lead a subsistence living due to poverty and unfavourable farming condition of the place.

Here, political parties and their leaders rarely visit, and elections are no exception. 

Generally, the pre-election period gives voters the opportunity to directly communicate their concerns and grievances to their political leaders. That is not the case in Brusbang. 

“We have several problems from such as lack of health post, drinking water shortage and low crop productivity. 

For most part of the year we survive on wild roots because the crops we grow hardly last for three months,” said Surya Maya Chepang, a local woman.

The locals are aware of the upcoming polls, but there is no excitement surrounding those events. 

In other parts of Dhading, conversations about elections, political parties and their candidates are hard to miss these days. But not in Brusbang.

The people here want to share their problems with their future representatives to federal and provincial assemblies. This has not come to pass until now.   

“We have heard about the polls. But no political leaders have approached us for votes. We also don’t know how to stamp the ballot papers in the upcoming elections,” said another villager.