Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: The CPN-UML suffered a humiliating setback in the House of Representatives elections held on Thursday, with nine members of its 19-member Secretariat—including party chairperson KP Sharma Oli—suffering defeats.
The election results have dealt a severe blow to the party’s top leadership, which was elected in December, a few months before the election. Although the party statute barred Oli from running for the post of party chairperson, he managed to endorse a proposal, through the statute convention held in September, to remove the two-term limit and 70-year age bar to hold executive positions in the leadership.
The humiliating defeat is certain to raise questions over Oli’s leadership and the party’s electoral strategy. The scale of the losses, particularly among senior leaders, is likely to trigger debate within the UML about leadership, party organisation, and its ability to respond to the rise of new political forces.
Oli lost his long-held Jhapa-5 constituency to former Kathmandu mayor and the prime ministerial candidate of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), Balen Shah, by more than 49,000 votes.
Among the party’s five vice-chairpersons, three—Bisnu Paudel, Prithvi Subba Gurung, and Gokarna Bista—had contested the elections. All three were defeated. Paudel lost in Rupandehi-2, while Gurung was defeated in Lamjung and Bista in Gulmi-2. Gurung lost to RSP’s Dharma Raj KC by more than 16,000 votes, while RSP’s Govinda Panthi narrowly recorded a 561-vote win over Bista. Paudel, meanwhile, suffered a heavy loss to RSP candidate Sulabh Kharel by nearly 44,000 votes.
General Secretary Shankar Pokharel, who is widely seen as a potential successor to Oli as party chairperson, also suffered a crushing defeat. He lost to RSP Joint General Secretary Bipin Kumar Acharya. Acharya, who secured 43,557 votes, defeated Pokharel by more than 28,000 votes.
Of the party’s three deputy general secretaries, only Raghubir Mahaseth contested the election. In Dhanusha-4, Mahaseth finished third behind RSP’s Raj Kishor Mahato and Nepali Congress candidate Mahendra Yadav. Mahato received 48,270 votes, followed by Yadav with 15,809 votes, while Mahaseth secured 11,529 votes. Mahaseth had recorded a comfortable victory from the constituency in the past two elections.
Among the party’s nine secretaries, three—Mahesh Basnet, Rajan Bhattarai, and Bhanubhakta Dhakal—were in the race in 2016. However, none managed to win their constituencies.
Basnet lost to RSP’s Rajib Khatri by nearly 32,000 votes in Bhaktapur-2. Khatri secured 42,334 votes, while Basnet received only 10,996. Similarly, Bhattarai finished third in Kathmandu-4 behind RSP’s Pukar Bam and Nepali Congress candidate Sachin Timilsina. Bam secured 29,142 votes, while Timilsina received 8,824 votes and Bhattarai managed only 5,733. Likewise, Dhakal lost to Santosh Subba of Nepali Congress by 879 votes. While Subba secured 11,561 votes, Dhakal received only 10,682.
