The intro of Janamat Party’s anthem roughly translates to ‘Son of Madhesh CK Raut will build a fort in Kathmandu’.
The song was made when Raut joined peaceful politics in March 2019 giving up his secessionist campaign for Free Madhes accepting Nepal's territorial integrity. The song is popular among the youths of Madhes and the party has been using it extensively in its election campaign.
Early election results show that Raut is set to hoist flag in Janakpur if not in Kathmandu.
Janamat Party led by Raut leads the Proportional Representation (PR) votes in the provincial assembly of Madhes Province securing 2,644 votes at the time of writing this news report. Nepali Congress (NC) is second with 2,228 followed by CPN-UML at 2,200 and CPN (Maoist Center) 1,238.
Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) led by Upendra Yadav, who led the Madhesh movement, is behind Maoist Center with 1,083. Loktantraik Samajwadi Party (LSP) may struggle to cross the PR threshold even in the province.
Counting of votes has just started in the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) constituencies for the provincial assembly and it will be too early to project about seats to be won by each party. But preliminary results show that Janamat Party will leave other Madhes-based parties behind in the province.
NC and UML are leading in eight constituencies each in the FPTP electoral system for 64 provincial assembly constituencies in the province. Maoist Center is leading in six seats, and Janamat Party and JSP in four each. LSP is leading in three seats.
The new party is doing well even in the PR electoral system for House of Representatives (HoR) securing 5,655 votes at the time of writing this report. It is seventh behind JSP which has secured 6,036. LSP looks unlikely to even cross the three-percent threshold to become national party.
Raut looks set to defeat JSP’s Upendra Yadav in the HoR constituency of Saptari-2. Raut defeating Yadav in Madhes has a huge symbolic meaning.
Yadav rose as the messiah of Madhes following the Madhes Movement triggered by him torching the Interim Constitution at the Maitighar Mandal just a day after it was promulgated on January 15, 2007 as founder of a political advocacy movement named Madhesi Janadhikar Forum.
The next Madhes Movement forced Koirala to sign an agreement accepting federalism. Yadav turned his organization into a political party and emerged as the fourth largest party after Maoists, NC and UML following the First Constituent Assembly (CA) Election in 2008.
His victory over Yadav shows that the center of Madhes-based politics seems to be shifting toward him. His rise will hit JSP also as Janamat Party seems to be mainly attracting voters from Dalit communities and impoverished people who traditionally vote for JSP.
