UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has challenged his party’s former deputy leader Baburam Bhattarai to win an election from Gorkha, the latter’s home district.

Bhattarai, who quit the Maoist party in September, recently announced a campaign to form   a new political party, a move that Dahal termed a betrayal against the people of Gorkha.

“He left the party that stood by him all his life. Getting elected from Gorkha will now be difficult for him,” Dahal said at a press meet in Gorkha on Saturday. 

“It was the Maoist party that the people in Gorkha had voted, not a person,” he said, claiming it was him who appointed Bhattarai the politburo member of the party despite objection from other leaders. 

Dahal said the party even picked Bhattarai as a prime minister. “