The contest in Gulmi-1 is shaping up to be a close race in the House of Representatives election scheduled for March 5, with four major candidates emerging as strong contenders.

Long dominated by CPN-UML’s Pradeep Gyawali and Nepali Congress leader Chandra Bhandari, the constituency has this time drawn serious challenges from Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) candidate Sagar Dhakal and Nepali Communist Party (NCP) candidate Sudarshan Baral, making the race difficult to predict.

Although candidates from 10 political parties and 11 independents are in the fray, the main competition is widely expected to be among Gyawali, Bhandari, Dhakal and Baral. The entry of Dhakal and Baral has broken the traditional bipolar contest between the UML and the Congress, adding new dynamics to the electoral landscape.

In the 2022 lower house poll, Bhandari of the Congress won the seat with 33,744 votes, defeating UML’s Gyawali by a margin of 1,592 votes. Gyawali had secured 32,152 votes. At the time, the then CPN (Maoist Centre) and CPN-Unified Socialist had supported the Congress candidate.

Proportional representation results from the 2022 election also point to a competitive field. The UML secured 28,453 votes, followed by the Congress with 23,413. The RSP garnered 8,116 votes, while the then Maoist Centre, now the NCP, received 6,257 votes in the constituency.

There are currently 122,186 registered voters in Gulmi-1. With multiple strong contenders and shifting political alignments, observers say the outcome remains highly uncertain as the election approaches.