Rastriya Swatantra Party is leading in all constituencies of Sarlahi in the 2026 House of Representatives elections.
Big leaders from Nepali Congress (NC) and Nepali Communist Party (NCP) had arrived to contest the elections in three out of the four constituencies of Sarlahi. Overcoming them, Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) is increasing its lead.
RSP is leading by a maximum of 20,000 and a minimum of 3,000 votes in the district. This has dealt a blow to NC President Gagan Thapa, who had descended from Kathmandu to Madhesh to contest the election, and NCP leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha.
Even Mahendra Raya Yadav, who reached the upper levels of NCP through Maoist politics from Madhesh and had been contesting and winning elections in Sarlahi-2 for years, is currently trailing.
In Sarlahi-1, Nitima Bhandari Karki has received 24,186 votes. She has left Shambhu Lal Shrestha of NC behind by more than 20,000 votes. Shrestha has secured just 3,634 votes.
In Sarlahi-2, Rabin Mahato of RSP has maintained the lead by securing 12,583 votes. NCP leader Mahendra Raya Yadav has received 3,158 votes here. There is a margin of 9,425 votes between them. Having become a candidate from CPN (Manandhar Group) in 1991 and faced defeat, Yadav won the 1994 and 1999 elections from CPN-UML. He had been winning all elections since then. Having left communist politics to join Madhesh-centered politics since 2008, Yadav rejoined Communist politics in 2022.
Similarly, in Sarlahi-3, RSP candidate Narendra Shah Kalwar has secured 17,269 votes leaving senior NCP leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha behind. Shrestha has secured 5,487 votes.
Shrestha has not won a direct election until now. Having joined the Maoists in 2008, Shrestha became a member of the Constituent Assembly through the proportional representation (PR) electoral system in the First Constituent Assembly Election in 2008. In 2013, he went to contest the election in Makwanpur-4 but was defeated. After that, in 2017, he went to Gorkha-2 to contest the election. There, he was defeated by former Maoist leader and former prime minister Baburam Bhattarai.
Having become a National Assembly member after that, he has served as deputy prime minister and federal minister multiple times. This time, he descended to Sarlahi to contest the election. However, he is continuously trailing behind RSP's Kalwar.
In Sarlahi-4, RSP candidate Amaresh Kumar Singh has maintained his lead. According to the latest election results from the Election Commission, Singh has secured 9,037 votes here, while NC President Gagan Thapa has received 5,828 votes trailing Singh by 3,209.
Thapa, who had been contesting elections in Kathmandu-4 since 2013, descended to Madhesh after becoming NC president through a Special General Convention. It is said that he went down to the Terai to increase the influence of NC in Madhesh. However, Thapa himself is currently trailing.
