Nepali Congress (NC) leader Krishna Prasad Sitaula and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) General Secretary Rajendra Lingden are fighting against each other from Jhapa Constituency-3 in the upcoming federal parliamentary elections.

Earlier, the NC and RPP had reached an agreement to field Lingden as their common first-past-the-post (FPTP) candidate from Jhapa-3 and make Thapa a proportional candidate.

It has been learnt that the electoral alliance between NC and RPP broke after Sitaula became resolute in his position to contest the election under FPTP category. Lingden has received backing from left alliance. But Sitaula is contesting alone.

The left alliance and RPP have forged electoral alliance. At a joint press conference in Birtamod on Wednesday, leaders and cadres aligned with left alliance announced to extend support to Lingden. CPN-UML Jhapa publicity chief Madhav Bidrohi confirmed that the left alliance has agreed to support Lingden’s candidacy.

This is the third election battle between Sitaula and Lingden.

In the general election of 1999, Sitaula defeated Lingden from Jhapa-1. But in the Constituent Assembly elections of 2008, Sitaula was defeated by CPN (Maoist Centre) candidate Purna Singh Rajbanshi with a huge margin.

In their second battle, Sitaula had defeated Lingden in the second Constituent Assembly, 2013.

According to experts, Lingden is more popular than Sitaula in Jhapa-3, though it is the latter’s home constituency.