Sitting PM, three former PMs solicit votes for NC’s Bhattarai

KATHMANDU: A sitting Prime Minister and three former prime ministers reached Tanahun on Wednesday afternoon to solicit votes for Nepali Congress candidate Govinda Raj Bhattarai in the by-election of Tanahun-1 constituency.

The election commission is holding the by-election in Tanahun-1 as well as Bara-1 and Chitwan-2 constituencies on April 23.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and former Prime Ministers Sher Bahadur Deuba, Madhav Kumar Nepal, and Dr Bhattarai addressed a corner meeting at Dumre Bazaar of Tanahun.

Bhattarai is locking horns with Economist Dr Swarnim Wagle of Rastriya Swatantra Party and Sarbendra Khanal of CPN-UML. Wagle, who left Nepali Congress about three weeks ago to contest the election, is giving a tough fight to Bhattarai in the seat which got vacated with the election of Ram Chandra Poudel to the position of President.

Bhattarai is the common candidate of the Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Center), Janata Samajbadi Party, and CPN (Unified Socialist).