Yogesh Bhattarai of CPN-UML has won reelection to the House of Representatives from Taplejung by a slim margin after a closely-fought contest.
Bhattarai defeated his closest rival Khel Prasad Budachhetri of CPN (Maoist Center) by only 208 votes. As per the final vote count results, Bhattarai secured 21,946 votes while Budachhetri got 21,738 votes.
Bhattarai had been trailing Budachhetri by a few votes since the beginning, but he had surged ahead after vote counting of Phungling Municipality started.
This is the second consecutive time Bhattarai has been elected from Taplejung as he had won the election from the constituency in 2017 too.
Bhattarai, who is also a UML secretary, was appointed as tourism minister after the then tourism minister Rabindra Adhikari died in a helicopter crash.