National Assembly: Timilsina, Devkota elected from Gandaki

POKHARA: Jagat Timilsina of the Nepali Congress (NC) and Samjhana Devkota of the CPN-UML have been elected to the National Assembly from Gandaki Province.

NC and UML had formed an alliance for the election.

Timilsina defeated Kapil Lama of the Nepali Communist Party (NCP) by a difference of 4,092 votes in the “Others” category. The 55-year-old Timilsina hails from Shuklagandaki-7 of Tanahun.

Similarly, Devkota defeated Goma Luintel Ghimire of the Nepal Communist Party. A resident of Gorkha-3, Devkota has repeatedly contested elections but faced defeats at various levels. In 2023, she lost the National Assembly election, and in 2017, she was defeated in the deputy mayoral race of Gorkha Municipality.

The two will replace Narayan Kaji Shrestha of the NCP and Bhagwati Nyaupane of the UML, both of whom resigned a few months before the end of their six-year terms to contest the House of Representatives elections.

Provincial assembly members, along with chiefs and deputy chiefs of local units, form the electoral college for the National Assembly election. Out of 60 provincial assembly members, only 57 cast their votes. Independent member Rajiv Gurung is suspended and serving a jail sentence, while two provincial assembly members from the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP)—Pancharam Gurung and Bindu Paudel—abstained.

At the local level, only 166 out of 170 eligible representatives participated in the voting.

Voting was held across all provinces on Sunday to elect 17 members of the National Assembly.