Bidhya Sundar Shakya of the CPN-UML has been elected the mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City to head the capital city for the next five years.

Shakya defeated his closest rival Raju Raj Joshi of the Nepali Congress by over 19,000 votes as the final results of the local level polls held on May 14 were out on Sunday.

Shakya garnered 64,913 votes against Joshi’s 45,269. In the local body elections held last in 1997, UML’s Keshav Sthapit was elected the mayor.

Born in Lagan Tole of Kathmandu in 1963, Shakya was elected twice as the chairman of KMC-21. This time around, Shakya secured a record 87 percent votes from his ward.

NC candidate Hariprabha Khadgi won the KMC deputy mayor’s post. Khadgi defeated Rastriya Prajatantra Party candidate Raja Ram Shrestha, who was supported by the UML, with a huge margin.

Other contenders in the mayoral race, Bibeksheel Nepali’s Ranju Darshana Neupane got 23,439 votes, and Sajha Party’s Kishore Thapa secured 18,492 votes.

CPN (Maoist Centre) candidate Sarbottam Dangol came fourth in the race with 7,906 votes. Deputy mayor-elect Khadgi garnered 58,952 votes, against 34,854 of the RPP candidate while Sajha Party’s Nirupama Yadav got 11,533 votes and CPN (Maoist Centre)’s Sushila Poudel secured 10,448 votes.

A total of 197,227 votes were cast in the whole of KMC. The UML has won 18 ward chairs, followed by 14 of the NC.