Left, Nepali Congress in close race

Nepali Congress supporters in Kathmandu. (AFP)

TT, Kathmandu, Nov. 22 (PTI): The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) and the Nepali Congress were locked in a dead heat today as the Maoists faced an election rout in the race to form a new Assembly that will draft Nepal’s new Constitution.

The CPN-UML has so far bagged 58 seats out of the 130 seats declared so far while the Nepali Congress has won in 53 constituencies. The Prachanda-led Communist party of Nepal-Maoist has won 9 seats.

The Jhalanath Khanal-led CPN-UML and Nepali Congress headed by Sushil Koirala were locked in a fierce battle to be the leading party in the 601-member Constituent Assembly.

Other fringe parties, including the Madhesi parties, have secured 10 seats. Rastriya Prajatantra Party and Terai Madhes Democratic Party bagged three seats each while the Madhesi People’s Rights Forum (Democratic) could only manage two seats.

The Madhesi People’s Rights Forum (Nepal) has won one seat and an independent candidate has also won in the election held on November 19.        

The Madhesi parties, which had allied with the Maoists for power sharing, suffered significant losses.

The Nepali Congress was leading in 57 constituencies , the CPN-UML in 54 while the UCPN-Maoist was ahead in 13 seats.

Top leaders who have been declared winners so far included — CPN-UML leader and former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal who got elected from two constituencies and Unified CPN-Maoist vice-chairman and former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai.

Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala, senior leaders Sher Bahadur Deuba and Krishna Sitaula were also declared winners in their respective constituencies, according to the Election Commission.

Maoist supremo Prachanda suffered a double blow as he and his daughter were handed humiliating defeats in the polls.

Even though Prachanda lost from Kathmandu Constituency 10, he is also a candidate from Siraha Constituency 5 where he was leading the vote count.

Prachanda’s daughter Renu Dahal lost to Nepali Congress general secretary Prakash Man Singh by a big margin. Senior Madhesi leaders Vijaya Gachhadar and Upendra Yadav, president of MPRF (Nepal), have also been defeated in the polls.

In Kathmandu’s 10 constituencies, Nepali Congress won seven and CPN-UML won three seats. Nepali Congress and CPN-UML organised victory rallies at different places in the capital.

The counting will lead to the formation of a Constituent Assembly, including 240 elected under a direct voting system. Proportionate voting will elect members to 335 seats and the remaining 26 members will be nominated by the government.        

Meanwhile, the commission held polls in the Devpal centre of mountainous Jumla district, where election was postponed due to unfavourable conditions.

Similarly, election will be held in one of the polling centres in Saptari district in southern Nepal tomorrow.

Nepal’s Maoists are threatening to boycott the new Assembly alleging conspiracy.

The vote was only the second one since a civil war launched by Maoist rebels ended in 2006.

Nepal was then transformed into a secular republic. The country plunged into a constitutional crisis after the previous Constituent Assembly was dissolved without promulgating the Constitution last year.