Shashank Koirala, 57, the youngest son of Nepali Congress founding leader BP Koirala registered a comfortable win over his competitors Arjun Narasingh KC and Gagan Thapa with a wide margin to become party’s general secretary on Tuesday. But the major surprise of the day came in the form of little known Sita Devi Yadav, who secured a narrow win over more widely known former deputy Speaker and education minister Chitra Lekha Yadav, to become the new party treasurer.

An ophthalmologist by profession, Koirala secured 1,417 votes—400 more than his closest competitor KC and 833 more than Thapa. KC secured 1,017 votes while Thapa managed to get 584, with 130 votes turning out to be invalid.

Thapa managed to score almost double of what Krishna Sitaula (322), who ran for the post of president. Thapa was contesting for the post of general secretary from Sitaula’s panel. More interestingly, Thapa was competing against his father in-law KC, and it is not yet clear if they cut each other’s vote.

While Thapa came a distant third, the fact that Thapa managed to get even 584 votes shows his resilience and popularity even in the deeply polarised environment of NC politics, analysts say. 

Similarly, Sita Devi came out victorious for the post of treasurer with a slim margin of eight votes against her closest rival Chitra Lekha, the outgoing treasurer. While Sita Devi secured 1,217 votes out of 3,148 vote cast, Chitra Lekha received 1,209. Four leaders were in the fray for the post. The other two candidates—Uma Kant Chaudhary Krishna Karki—received 457 just 66 votes respectively. 

Tuesday’s results in the NC, however, somewhat manages the power balance in the party when it comes to factionalism that has been rife for years. 

Koirala and Sita Devi fought in the election from the old establishment camp led by Ram Chandra Poudel, who lost to Sher Bahadur Deuba in the party presidential run-off.  

Koirala’s win also heralds a resurgence of the BP brand, though he remains an untested candidate as to how much of his father’s legacy and ideals will he actually embody in his politics.

As per the party statute, NC elects three office bearers—party president, general secretary and treasurer. Now NC’s Office Bearers has one post with the Deuba faction (with Deuba himself as the party president) and two with what used to be called the establishment faction. 

Talking to the media after the victory, Koirala said he would now make efforts to transform the party as per the new constitution. “I also have the responsibility to unite the party and make it stronger,” he said. “The NC will contribute in stable politics as this is the only way to take country in the path of development. All the NC leaders will work together to attain the goal.” 

Talking to the Post after the results were announced, Sita Devi said her victory was a result of the respect given by the party cadres to the family of a martyr. Her husband Chandra Narayan, a former district president of the party, was killed by the Maoists.

“My priority will be to make party more united and send a message of unity across the party rank and file,” she told the Post. 

Despite their victory, both Koirala and Yadav are lesser known individuals in the mainstream politics compared to their competitors. It has been barely a decade since Koirala entered into the mainstream politics. A medical doctor, Koirala made his foray into politics in 2005 when he was first elected Central Working Committee member of the party. He was elected as the member of the Constituent Assembly twice in 2008 and 2013 from Nawalparasi-1. However, he seldom participated in the constitution drafting process. Nor was his presence ever felt in parliamentary affairs. His presence in party activities was also too thin. “Despite being elected in the CA twice, he failed to make his presence felt,” Puranjan Acharya, a political analyst close to the NC told the Post in an interview last week. “It will be interesting to see how he transfers himself if he wins as general secretary.” 

Coming from the Koirala family and being a son of BP Koirala was the main contributing factor for his win. 

On the other hand, Sita Devi joined the politics only in 2000 after her husband was killed. She is the first woman district president of the NC. Sita Devi, who was nominated as the parliamentarian in the reinstated Parliament in 2006, is a lawmaker from Siraha-3.