KATHMANDU: In Kathmandu Constituency No. 1, which has long been considered a stronghold of the Nepali Congress, Ranju Neupane (Darshana) of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has won the election for Member of the House of Representatives. Although the vote counting for the first-past-the-post category has been completed, the official declaration of victory is still pending.

Since the Constituent Assembly election held in 2008, the Nepali Congress had been winning in this constituency. Previously, Nepali Congress leader Prakash Man Singh had won the election from this constituency.

Ranju first gained public attention in the 2017 local elections after running for mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, where she lost to Bidya Sundar Shakya of the CPN (UML).

In this House of Representatives election, her name had also been registered with the Election Commission on the closed list of proportional representation candidates from the RSP.

According to Churaman Khadka, the Chief Election Officer of Kathmandu, counting has been completed for the 29,374 votes cast under the first-past-the-post system. Ranju secured the highest number of votes—15,455—to win the election.

“The counting of votes under the direct (first-past-the-post) system has been completed, and the proportional vote counting is ongoing. According to the election process, the official announcement of the winner is yet to be made,” Chief Election Officer Khadka said.

Nepali Congress candidate Prabal Thapa came second with 6,264 votes. RaBindra Mishra of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party secured third place with 3,972 votes.

In the 2022 House of Representatives election, Mishra had been the runner-up. This marks the third time he has lost from this constituency.

Similarly, CPN (UML) candidate Mohan Raj Regmi received 1,618 votes, while Nepali Communist Party candidate Menaka Bhandari received 345 votes.