Political parties in Dhanusha are yet to pick their candidates for the last phase of local elections scheduled for September 18 in Province 2.

The Election Commission has set September 6 as the nomination filing date. 

Voting in eight districts of Province 2 will elect representatives for 136 local units (77 municipalities and 59 rural municipalities).

In Dhanusha, people will elect representatives for one sub-metropolitan city, 11 municipalities and six rural municipalities. 

The main reason why major political parties are struggling to pick their candidates is intra-party disputes, say political analysts, adding that parties are waiting for each other to declare their candidates. 

The CPN-UML and the Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal (RJP-N) in particular are waiting for the Nepali Congress (NC) to declare its candidates “so that they can pick their candidates accordingly”, said the analysts. 

Dhanusha is the home district of senior NC leader Bimalendra Nidhi and considered the ruling NC’s stronghold. 

The NC had won five of the seven constituencies in the district in the second Constituent Assembly elections in 2013. The UML and the Sadbhawana Party each had won the remaining two constituencies. 

Many in the NC believe Manoj Sah, who is considered close to Nidhi, is most likely to be picked as the party’ candidate for Janakpur Sub-Metropolitan City. However, NC leader Bajaranga Prasad, who is from the party’s Lila Koirala faction, is also aspiring for the post, party insiders said, adding that Ram Saroj Yadav, district president of the NC, and other leaders aspiring for various posts are currently in Kathmandu hence the district committee was yet to finalise the candidates. 

In the UML, which emerged victorious in the first and second phase of polls in Province 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, is also mired in internal disputes. 

There is fierce competition between the two factions led by alternative politburo member Shatrughan Mahato and central member Raghubir Mahaseth. 

The Mahato faction is backing Dipendra Yadav while the Mahaseth group has thrown its weight behind Laxminarayan Bhagat for the post of Janakpur mayor. 

Shyam Purbe, a UML district committee leader, said the party’s standing committee meeting in the Capital would finalise the Janakpur mayoral and deputy mayoral candidates. The UML on Saturday finalised the candidates for three metropolises of Province 2. A standing committee meeting of the party has picked Basuriddhin Ansari Sofiya Acharya mayoral and deputy mayoral candidates of Birgunj Metropolitan City. Similarly Binod Sah and Pratima Yadav have been selected as mayor and deputy mayor candidates of Kalaiya Sub-metropolitan City. Krishna Poudel and Saraswoti Chaudhary have been chosen as mayor and deputy mayor candidate of Jitpur Simara Sub-Metropolitan City.

The RJP-N, a unified force of six Madhes-based parties, is also struggling to pick candidates. The party did not participate in the first round of local elections and boycotted the second phase. 

A team of central leaders including Brikheshchandra Lal, Umakanta Jha, Gajadhar Yadav, Devendra Yadav, Ritesh Sing, Rajiv Jha and Ram Prasad Giri has been working to finalise the candidates, party sources said.

For the RJP-N, which has decided to participate in local elections after hemming and hawing for long, the Province 2 elections are going to be a real test for the party, as they not only have to save their constituencies but prove itself as “a true force that represents the Madhes” as it claims, say the political analysts. 

“We have limited time. There are many aspirants; and this is obvious,” said RJP-N leader Parameshwor Sah, adding that the party will finalise its candidates “soon”.