Valley
Old faces dominate tally
As the results of only a handful of seats on the federal parliament remain to be announced, old faces dominate the list of winners.Chandan Kumar Mandal
As the results of only a handful of seats on the federal parliament remain to be announced, old faces dominate the list of winners.
Among the claimants of 156 federal parliament seats so far, most are candidates elected in previous polls. Only 65, slightly over 41 percent, successful candidates are first timers. The left alliance of the CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre) has won 110 constituencies so far. As many as 51 successful candidates from the two parties were never elected before.
The UML, which has got near majority in the first-past-the-post federal election, has 39 new faces among the 76 winning candidates as of Monday evening. On the other hand, the ruling Nepali Congress, which has experienced its worst defeat ever, failed to project new faces during its campaign.
The new faces in the NC are Dev Prasad Timalsena in Rautahat-4, Mohan Acharya in Rasuwa and Pramod Kumar Yadav, a 38-year-old, in Rupandehi-4. The party has managed to win only 21 federal parliament seats so far.
A total of 12 new politicians have emerged victorious from the CPN (Maoist Centre) as it musters 34 seats to emerge as the second largest party.
New faces seem to have brought fortune also to the Madhes-based parties. The Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum Nepal has seven candidates registering their first victory as the party wins 10 seats in total. Except senior leaders Upendra Yadav, Ram Sahay Prasad Yadav and Mohammad Ishtiyaq Rai, the others won the parliamentary seats for the first time.
The Rastriya Janata Party Nepal, which has fared well in Province 2, has three new triumphant leaders Chandra Kant Chaudhary, Iqbal Miya and Pramod Sah. Another fresh winner is Rajendra Kumar Lingden from the RPP. He defeated NC heavyweight Krishna Prasad Sitaula by more than 13,000 votes in Jhapa-1 with the backing of the left alliance.