The local election in CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli’s hometown Damak is going to be interesting this time with all the major parties allying against UML.
UML has won mayorship in all the local elections there since restoration of democracy in 1990. But it will have to face what the locals call ‘grand alliance’ including Nepali Congress (NC), CPN (Maoist Center) and Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) from the ruling coalition and RPP.
RPP unsurprisingly will lead the fight to take over the UML stronghold as the mayoral candidate Ram Thapa had finished second in the election for mayor in the last two local elections both of which were won by Rom Nath Oli of UML.
Both the ruling coalition and UML wooed the provincial chairman of RPP safe in the knowledge that alliance with Thapa would render them invincible. Thapa entertained advances from both the sides but he demanded that he should be the mayoral candidate.
UML could not give mayorship of Chairman Oli’s hometown that has always elected a UML candidate as mayor. NC had no qualms to give mayorship to RPP having failed to win even one of the 52 seats in Damak municipality that has 10 wards, in the last local election.
“We had nothing to lose in Damak,” Vice-president of Damak Congress Yuvaraj Khanal told Setopati. “We agreed to accept RPP’s leadership concluding that we can easily defeat UML if a grand alliance including RPP were forged.”
The ruling coalition—excluding CPN (Unified Socialist) that has been out of the alliance in Jhapa due to what other coalition partners claim their unreasonable demands in a district with little organization—agreed to make Thapa the joint candidate for mayor and Regina Bhattarai of NC for deputy mayor.
NC and Maoist Center have fielded candidates for chairs in four wards each, and RPP in two wards. JSP has fielded candidates only for ward members.
UML has fielded the incumbent Deputy Mayor Geeta Adhikari for mayor and Ambika Khanal for deputy mayor.
UML seems bullish despite all the other major parties allying against it. “We will easily win the election even when all the others are united against us. We will continue our dominance here,” UML leader Hom Thapa told Setopati.
The party’s mayoral candidate concurred claiming that Damak is well-developed and prosperous today due to UML and the party has a very strong organization in the municipality.
But the coalition leaders beg to differ and seem confident of an easy victory. The vote tally in the last local election give them that confidence.
Rom Nath Oli was elected mayor with 10,806 votes with RPP’s Thapa finishing second at 7,655, and Maoist Center (6,898) and NC (5,539) finishing third and fourth respectively in the last local election.
UML leaders point that RPP has split since last local election and Thapa is not as popular as he was last time.
But Thapa seems confident about his victory this time. “We will create history this time,” he told Setopati pointing at the votes received by the major parties in the last local election. “The first thing is people of Damak want to provide justice to us this time. The second thing is the people here want end of corruption and irregularities that flourished during the single-party rule of UML.”
