With half the votes counted, Swarnim Wagle of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has maintained his big lead in the by-election in Tanahun-1 held on Sunday.
Wagle, who quit Nepali Congress (NC) and joined RSP citing continuous humiliation and bullying by NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba and his wife Arzu, has secured more votes than the combined total of all other candidates.
Wagle has secured 17,902 votes to lead Govinda Bhattarai of Nepali Congress by more than 7,500 votes. Bhattarai has 10,228 votes. CPN-UML’s Sarbendra Khanal is third with 5,867.
Vote counting of 22 of the 42 wards in the constituency has been completed so far. They include six wards of Anbu Khareni Rural Municipality, 11 wards of Bhanu Municipality and four wards of Devghat Municipality.