Madhesh Province Assembly welcoming majority of new faces this time

The voters in the Madhesh Province this time decided to send mixed faces to the Province Assembly. Through the recently concluded polls, the Province Assembly in the Madhesh which comprises eights districts in the southern plain is all set to reflect a diverse mass in terms of political parties, age group, class, and community.

The elections to the Member of the Province Assembly and the House of Representatives were held simultaneously on November 20 across the country including in the Madhes Province.

The Madesh PA is a 107-member legislator body at the province level: 64 members are elected under the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) system and 43 under the Proportional Representation (PR system).

Among those faces getting elected to the PA this time under the FPTP, some are reelected while some completely new faces. The number of new faces is relatively higher than that of the familiar ones.

Lalbabu Raut who has already served as the Chief Minister for the Province is almost sure to make his second entry into the PA. The central leader of the Janata Samajbadi Party has been elected from the Parsa constituency 1 (2).

Likewise, the majority of voters in the Dhanusha-3(1) have decided to resend NC leader Ram Saroj Yadav as their representative to the PA. He has already served as the Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport.

Loktantrik Samajbadi Party (LSP) leader Jitendra Sonal got his re-reelection from the Bara-4(2). He also already took charge of the province minister.

Similarly, Ramesh Prasad Kurmi of the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party has been re-elected from Parsa 2 (2). He previously won from the then Rastriya Janata Party in 2074 BS. Shankar Prasad Chaudhary of the Nepali Congress has also been elected to the PA member for the second time from Parsa-4 (1).

Likewise, Sheikh Abul Kalam Azad of the JSP has emerged victorious from Rautahat-4 (2) for the second time.

Four PA members have been elected for the second time from Sarlahi. Upendra Mahato of LSP has won the elections from Sarlahi-1 (1) and Bechi Lungeli of the LSP from Sarlahi-1 (2).  Sanjay Kumar Yadav of JSP and Birendra Prasad Singh of the NC have again secured their seats from Sarlahi-3 (2) and Sarlahi-4 (1) respectively.

LSP’s candidates–Abhiram Sharma and Rani Sharma–have been re-elected from Mahottari-3 (1) and Mahottari-3 (2) respectively.

Similarly, JSP’s Ramashish Yadav has emerged victorious to the PA member for the second time from Dhanusha-2 (2) while this is the second win of Mohammad Samim of the Nepali Congress from Saptari-3 (1).

Some new faces

This is the first journey of Rahabar Ansari of the CPN (Maoist Centre) into the Madhes PR. He was elected from Parsa-1 (1). Similarly, other elected new faces include Shyam Prasad Patel of the NC from Parsa-2 (1) and Janardan Singh Chhetri of the NC from Parsa-3 (2).

Similarly, UML’s Rabindra Das Shrestha, elected from Bara-3 (1), and UML’s Dev Narayan Tharu, elected from Bara-4 (1) are new faces.

Six of seven PA elects from Rautahat are new faces. Nagendra Sah was elected from constituency 1 (1), and Krishna Prasad Yadav from constituency (2). Both of them are from the Nepali Congress. Yadav is the president of the NC, province.

Similarly, other elected new faces include Mohammad Jaid Alam from constituency 2 (1), Kanish Patel from constituency 2 (2), both from the UML, independent candidate Keshab Raya from constituency 3 (1) and Maoist Center’s Yubaraj Bhattarai from constituency 4 (1).

Similarly, other elected new faces are Maoist Center’s Phakira Mahato from Sarlahi 4 (2), UML’s Lakhan Das Tamma from Dhanusha 2 (1), Shambhu Kumar Sah from Saptari 3 (2), Satish Kumar Singh from the constituency 2 (1), Mahesh Prasad Yadav from the constituency 2 (2) and Sakil Miya from the constituency 1 (2), all four from the Janamat Party, and UML’s Raj Kumar Lekhi from the constituency 1 (1).

Lekhi previously served as a member of the Provincial Policy and Planning Commission.

But, some experienced candidates had to face defeat in these polls. Shailendra Sah, the sitting Finance Minister of the province, lost from Saptari 2 (1). He also served as Minister for Land Management, Agriculture, and Cooperatives of the province.

Similarly, Yogendra Raya Yadav, who served as Minister of State for Land Management, Agriculture, and Cooperatives, also lost from Rautahat 1 (2).

Dipendra Jha, who contested from Mahottari 3 in the elections after resigning as Chief Attorney of the province, also lost the election.