The Nepali Congress has reclaimed Palpa-1 after 34 years, with its candidate Sandeep Rana winning the House of Representatives seat.

Rana secured 18,336 votes to defeat his nearest rival, CPN-UML candidate Narayan Acharya, who received 16,819 votes. Rastriya Swatantra Party candidate Bimal Pant came third with 14,333 votes.

The constituency had been dominated by UML candidates for more than three decades. The last time the Congress won the seat was in the 1991 election, when Kalu Ram Rana was elected.

In the subsequent elections, UML candidates consistently retained the seat, including victories by Dal Bahadur Rana, Bhadra Bahadur Thapa, Radhakrishna Kandel and Narayan Acharya in different elections from 1994 to 2022.

Sandeep Rana’s victory marks the return of the Nepali Congress to the constituency after a long gap.