Rastriya Swatantra Party President Rabi Lamichhane has been elected to the House of Representatives from Chitwan-2 for the second time in a row.

As per the final results of the by-election held on Sunday, Lamichhane defeated his closest competitor, Jit Narayan Shrestha of the Nepali Congress, by a margin of 45,011 votes.

Lamichhane received 54,176 votes, while Shrestha bagged 11,214 votes.

Ram Prasad Neupane of the CPN-UML became third with 10,936 votes.

Lamichhane was elected from the constituency in last year’s polls defeating Umesh Shrestha of Congress by a margin of 34,170 votes.

The by-election was held in the constituency to fulfil a House seat that became vacant after the Supreme Court invalidated the lawmaker status of Lamichhane, stating that the citizenship certificate he had submitted to contest the November polls was invalid.