Swarnim Wagle of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has opened up a big lead in the by-election in Tanahun-1 held on Sunday.
Wagle, who quit Nepali Congress (NC) citing continuous humiliation and bullying by NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba and his wife Arzu and joined RSP, has secured more than twice the votes of NC's Govinda Bhattarai.
Wagle has secured 7,625 votes against Bhattarai's 3,471. CPN-UML’s Sarbendra Khanal is third with 2,219.
Counting in the federal constituencies of Bara-2 and Chitwan-2 have yet to start.