Initial shock to ruling alliance in Tanahun-1, Wagle doubles his lead

Kathmandu: Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) candidate Dr. Swarnim Wagle has doubled his lead in the preliminary vote count of the by-election in Tanahun-1.

According to the latest vote count results, Dr. Wagle has taken lead with huge margin. Out of 12,700 vote count so far, he has garnered 6,745 votes.

The candidate of Nepali Congress Govinda Bhattarai is trailing far behind Wagle with 3,123 votes. While CPN-UML’s candidate Sarbendra Khanal is in third position with 1,942 votes.

Bhattarai, who is also the common candidate of ruling alliance, has got unexpectedly low votes from Bhanu municipality and Abukhaireni rural municipality. These two municipalities are the strongholds of Congress and CPN (Maoist Center).

In the local elections held last year, the Maoist won the Anbukhaireni rural municipality. The son of Maoist Centre’s Gandaki parliamentary party leader Hari Bahadur Chuman is the rural municipality chief.

Chuman has been claiming the chief minister of Gandaki on the basis of this. However, the alliance’s vote seems to have shifted to Wagle.

The Congress has a strong vote share in Bhanu Municipality. UML and Maoist come behind Congress as regards vote shares. The Unified Socialist’s vote base is also good here. However, Wagle has attracted the votes of both ruling alliance and main opposition UML here.

Since the start of vote counting last night, Wagle has been taking the lead from the beginning. In this constituency, the votes of the urban areas and Devghat rural municipality can be decisive.