On March 24, the CPN-UML announced its bypoll candidates for the Ilam-2 federal constituency and Bajhang (A) seat in the Sudur Paschim Provincial Assembly. Suhang Nembang is the party’s candidate for the House of Representative seat from Ilam and Dan Bahadur Bhandari from Bajhang.

The other parties in the ruling alliance also decided to contest the polls saying the senior coalition partner announced its candidates without consultations. The CPN (Unified Socialist) has picked Jit Bahadur Rai for Ilam and Dil Bahadur Singh for Bajhang. On Saturday, the Rastriya Swatantra Party decided to field Milan Limbu from Ilam. It is not contesting provincial assembly polls.

A meeting of the CPN (Maoist Centre) office bearers on Wednesday decided to contest the Ilam bypoll but is yet to announce its candidates. The party’s Sudurpaschim provincial committee has recommended Janak Raj Budha as the provincial assembly candidate from Bajhang and the party’s Koshi provincial committee is working to finalise the candidate for Ilam. The by-elections for the two positions will be held on April 27.

Despite the announcement to face each other, the UML and the Maoist Centre are in negotiation to field common candidates. “While the candidate selection process continues, we are also in talks with the UML to field common candidates. We are ready to leave one of the constituencies if the UML agrees to support us in the other,” Giriraj Mani Pokharel, deputy general secretary of the Maoist Centre who is in charge of the party’s Sudur Paschim committee, told the Post.

The UML leaders say that, with a stronghold in the grassroots, they are urging the ruling parties to support their candidates in both constituencies. “There is a high possibility of having common candidates of ruling parties other than Rastriya Swatantra Party,” Rajendra Gautam, chief of the UML’s publicity department, told the Post. We are seeking support for both our candidates. However, we can leave Bajhang as we didn’t win the seat in the previous polls.”

Leaders from the UML and the Maoist Centre say negotiations will yield fruit by nomination time. “There are still five days for nominations. I believe we can reach an agreement through some give-and-take,” Haribol Gajurel, deputy general secretary of the Maoist Centre who heads the party’s Koshi provincial committee, told the Post. The candidacy should be filed on Saturday.

The Ilam-2 House of Representatives seat has been vacant since the demise of former Speaker and Constituent Assembly chairman Subas Chandra Nembang last year. He died of a heart attack on September 13. The UML leader had continuously won the constituency starting with the 1999 general elections.

In the November 2022 poll, Nembang defeated his closest contender Dambar Bahadur Khadka of the Nepali Congress by 1,014 votes. While Nembang garnered 30,020 votes, Khadka, a common candidate of the Congress-led alliance, managed to get 29,906.

The seat in Bajhang (A) remains vacant after Prithvi Bahadur Singh, a provincial assembly member and also the provincial minister for internal affairs and law, died in a road accident in June last year. Singh, who contested on the Congress ticket as a common candidate of the then alliance, had won the election with 17,112 votes. His close contender was Aphilal Okheda of the UML. He had managed to secure 13,336 votes.

Like the Maoist Centre, the Congress has yet to settle on its candidates. Sher Bahadur Deuba, the party president, has called a meeting of the party’s central work execution committee on Tuesday to decide on its candidate.

In addition to Khadka, Bhesh Raj Acharya, Keshav Thapa, Nagendra Kumal, and Ramesh Lingden are the bypoll aspirants from the party. The party is likely to pick between Khadka and Acharya. As Khadka comes from the Deuba faction, he has high chances of getting the ticket, according to party insiders.

Based on the proportional representation votes they received in the last election, the UML is the strongest party, followed by the Congress and the Maoist Centre in the constituency. While the UML had managed to garner 26,562 votes, the Congress and the Maoist Centre bagged 22,33 and 5,153 votes respectively under the PR category.

The RSP got 4,686 votes to hold the fourth largest position. The Unified Socialist got just 586 votes. Various identity-based parties which include National Mangol, Rastriya Janamukti and Saghiya Loktantrik Manch too had significant vote shares in Ilam. They have announced a common candidate this time.