NC conspiring to repeat Bharatpur incident in Birgunj Metropolis: FSFN Chair Yadav

KATHMANDU, Sept 26: Upendra Yadav, Chairman of Federal Socialist Forum Nepal (FSFN), has slammed the ruling party Nepali Congress (NC) of conspiring to repeat the incident of Bharatpur in Birgunj Metropolis as well.

Vote counting of ward no 16, 17 and 18 of Birgunj Metropolis came to a halt at around 7 pm Monday evening after NC, Rastriya Janata Party Nepal including other parties started protesting claiming that the vote counting was rigged.

“It is surprising to hear that the vote counting stopped in Birgunj,” said Yadav while talking to Rishi Dhamala at a radio program ‘Nepali Bahas’.

“After the NC felt it certain that our party candidate Bijay Sarawagi will win the mayoral race, the party is conspiring against us. They said the counting was rigged when our candidate was leading the poll result. The NC is trying to repeat the incident of Bharatpur,” Yadav vented ire.

FSFN mayoral candidate Sarawagi was leading the poll result with 15, 635 votes while NC candidate was trailing behind with 14,257 vote in the Metropolis when the vote counting was called off.

Vote counting in Birgunj started eight days ago. So far, a total of 65, 276 votes have been counted in the only metropolis in province 2 with over 84,000 voters.

Yadav also demanded the Election Commission to resume the voting as immediately as possible.

Candidate Sarawagi said that NC, CPN (Maoist Center) and RJPN all had part in the conspiracy. He added, “But the voters are aware of this incident. No voter here is accepting any king of plot and game of deceit. No force can stop RJPN from wining here in Metropolis.”

The winners of 133 local units have already been declared until Monday evening. Nepali Congress is leading the poll table with victory in 39 local units. Trailing behind are FSFN (25 wins), RJPN (24), MC (21), UML (18) and Nepal Loktantrik Forum (3).