Dr Swarnim Wagle secures easy win in Tanahun-1

KATHMANDU: Dr Swarnim Wagle of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has won the by-election in Tanahun-1 constituency of the House of Representatives by a wide margin.

Wagle received 34,918 votes. His closest contender Govinda Raj Bhattarai of Nepali Congress polled 20,122 votes.

Interestingly, Bhattarai was the common candidate of the ruling coalition which includes CPN (Maoist Center), CPN (Unified Socialist), and Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP), among others.

Sarbendra Khanal of CPN-UML came third with 8,488 votes, while Rastriya Prajatantra Party’s Shobha Gurung and Mongol National Organization’s Prem Bahadur Thapa received 218 and 166 votes, respectively.

The constituency became vacant with the election of Ram Chandra Poudel of Nepali Congress to the post of President.

Dr Wagle, a long-time NC faithful, left the party a few days before the nomination filing date to join RSP. RSP, founded by former television host Rabi Lamichhane about six months before the general elections held on November 20 last year, won 20 seats in the House of Representatives.