Former president of the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), Bipul Pokharel, has been elected as a general convention representative from Dang Constituency No. 2 president under the 15th general convention of the Nepali Congress.
After nearly three decades in journalism, Pokharel has now formally embarked on a political career.
Pokharel comes from a political family. His father, Binod Pokharel, was also a former chair of BP Chintan Dang. Pokharel is also the institutional secretary of the Nepal Press Union Dang.
The results of Tuesday’s election held in the Nepali Congress Dang-2 convention were announced on Wednesday night. Kiran Kishor Ghimire received the highest number of popular votes, securing 702 votes. Ghimire was a candidate for the House of Representatives in the election held on March 5. Bhupa Bahadur Dangi, who lost the race for deputy mayor of Ghorahi Sub-metropolitan City in the most recent local-level election, came second with 645 votes.
They were followed by Lumbini Provincial Assembly member and former minister Prachanda Bikram Neupane with 616 votes; Lumbini Provincial Assembly member and former minister Raju Khanal with 606; former constituency president of Dang-2 Bhim Prakash Khadka with 509; Ghorahi-10 ward chairman Deepak Pandeya with 425; former Ghorahi-10 chair Chitra Bahadur Dangi with 393; Bipul Pokharel with 365; Mahesh Raj Shrestha with 358; and medical entrepreneur Pawan Acharya with 338. All were elected as general convention representatives.
Ghorahi-15 Ward Chairman Ramesh Pandey narrowly missed out on an open-category general convention representative seat by four votes. Pandey received 334 votes.
Other candidates who lost the election in the open category were Padam Raj Sharma (305 votes), Giriraj Subedi (270), Durlabh KC (265), Harish Chandra Bhandari (261), Praveen Kumar Bhandari (237), Rekh Bahadur Wali (235), Purushottam Sharma (226), Shreedhar Ghimire (222), Narayan Prasad Bhandari (204), Liladhar Wali (193), Prem Bahadur Dangi (136), Yagya Bahadur Basnet (130), Krishna Bahadur Dangi (114), Sunil Kumar Devkota (104), Prakash Rajaure (103), and Bishnu Prasad Sharma (84).
In the open category for women general convention representatives, Bimala Yogi received the highest number of votes. She was elected with 633 votes. Yogi is the founding president of the Nepal Women’s Association Dang. She is a women’s rights activist and social campaigner.
Yogi is also the founding president of the Nepal Women Community Organization, whose group has been working on women’s empowerment in Dang, Rolpa, Rukum, Jajarkot, and other districts. The organization also supports women in becoming entrepreneurs, works with conflict-affected women, and invests in the education of underprivileged children in remote areas. Yogi is the sister of journalist Bhagirath Yogi.
She was followed by Lumbini Provincial Assembly member Janaka KC with 504 votes, Nepali Congress Dang secretary Balika Lamsal with 493, and former National Assembly member Anita Devkota with 487. Nepal Women’s Association central member Goma Rawat received 437 votes and leader Manju Bajracharya received 261, but neither was elected.
A total of 33 general convention representatives have been elected from Dang-2 across various categories. Professor Prakash Shrestha was elected president of the Dang-2 constituency.
