Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML have benefited at the cost of Madhes-based Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) and Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (LSP) in the recent House of Representatives (HoR) and provincial assembly elections in Madhes Province.
UML, that had won just two of 32 constituencies through the First-Past-The Post (FPTP) electoral system in 2017 despite alliance with CPN (Maoist Center) with promise of post-election unification, has already won eight out of 31 seats and is trailing an NC candidate in the only constituency where counting has yet to be finished.
NC, that had won six seats in 2017, has already won seven seats and leading in another.
The then Federal Socialist Forum Nepal (FSFN), largely JSP now, had won nine HoR seats in 2017 but has won just six this time while Rastriya Janata Party (largely LSP now) that had won 10 seats five years back has won just four this time.
JSP Chairman Upendra Yadav has suffered humiliating defeat at the hands of Janamat Party President CK Raut in Saptari-2 to cap a miserable performance for the party that had decided to ally with the main opposition CPN-UML just before filing nominations after quitting the ruling coalition over differences in sharing of seats.
Maoist Center has also suffered badly in the province this time having won five seats due to alliance with UML in 2017. It has failed to win even a single seat while Mahindra Raya Yadav of Baburam Bhattarai’s Nepal Samajwadi Party contesting with election symbol of Maoist Center winning from Sarlahi-2.
Former Maoist leader Prabhu Sah, who had defected to UML but contested this election as independent candidate, has won one constituency with support of the ruling coalition.
UML is performing well even in the provincial assembly winning 13 seats and leading in two. It had won 14 out of 64 seats in 2017.
NC, that had won just four provincial seats in 2017, has won 13 seats.
Madhes-based parties have fared badly even in the provincial assembly. The then FSFN, largely JSP now, had won 20 out of 64 FPTP seats in 2017 but has won just eight seats this time. The then RJP, largely LSP now, had won 15 seats five years back but has won just seven now.
Newly-formed Janamat Party has won six seats in the provincial assembly until now to hurt the electoral fortune of JSP and LSP while CPN (Unified Socialist), formed after split of UML, has won four and independent candidates six constituencies.
NC leads in Proportional Representation (PR) votes in the province until now securing around 277,000 votes while UML is second with around 236,000.
