KATHMANDU. Nepali Congress President Gagan Kumar Thapa has decided to contest the House of Representatives election from Sarlahi-4. Thapa, who has been elected as a member of parliament (MP) from Kathmandu-4 for three consecutive terms, has descended to the Madhesh region for the fourth time.

Sarlahi-4, where Thapa is contesting, is considered a stronghold of the Nepali Congress. From 2048 BS (1991) until 2056 BS (1999), Nepali Congress candidates won here for three consecutive terms. However, in 2064 BS (2008), the then Madheshi Janadhikar Forum wrested this Nepali Congress stronghold away.

In the second Constituent Assembly election of 2070 BS (2013), Nepali Congress’s Amresh Kumar Singh reclaimed the legacy. After winning two consecutive elections since 2013 and preserving the Nepali Congress’s legacy, Singh was no longer with the party in the 2022 election. Contesting as a rebel candidate from the Nepali Congress, Singh defeated the party’s candidate Nagendra Ray Yadav. In that election, Singh received 20,017 votes, while the Nepali Congress’s Yadav received 18,252 votes. Another independent candidate, Madhumala Kumari Yadav, received 14,622 votes.

Singh is contesting the House of Representatives election scheduled for March 5 as a candidate of the Rastriya Swatantra Party from the same constituency.

Sarlahi-4 is also the constituency from which senior Nepali Congress leader Mahanta Thakur used to contest. Thakur was elected in elections of 2048 BS (1991) and in the mid-term 2051 BS (1994). In the 2056 BS (1999) parliamentary election, the Nepali Congress changed its candidate and fielded Nagendra Ray Yadav, who also won.

In the first Constituent Assembly election of 2064 BS (2008), Thakur quit the Nepali Congress and contested from Sarlahi-4 as a candidate of the Terai Madhesh Loktantrik Party. However, he was defeated by Shiv Pujan Ray Thakur of the then Madhesi Janadhikar Forum.

In the second Constituent Assembly election of 2070 BS (2013), Amresh Kumar Singh defeated both Thakur and Forum candidate Ray. In 2074 BS (2017), after being denied a party ticket, Singh again won as an independent candidate. After Ray was declared ineligible to contest due to the red passport scandal, Singh won easily.

Singh, who has won even as an independent candidate in the past, has now become stronger with the backing of the Rastriya Swatantra Party. “Gagan-ji is welcome; he has come to contest the election, and I will send him back defeated,” Singh says. “Even when they came here with an alliance, they lost to me.”

Amid the heat of a special general convention, the Nepali Congress is facing bitterness between Thapa’s group and that of outgoing party president Sher Bahadur Deuba. With disputes over party legitimacy reaching the courts and intense dissatisfaction within the party, Thapa has chosen Sarlahi-4. There is also discontent within the Nepali Congress regarding candidate selection. Without emotional unity, the newly elected Thapa from the special convention faces a challenge in a constituency with strong candidates.

Political analyst Chandrakishor Jha says Gagan Thapa’s move to Sarlahi could be the Nepali Congress’s attempt to reclaim its old support base.

“Along with this, figures like Balen and Gagan-ji moving to Madhesh mean that, without propaganda, Madhesh is being brought into mainstream politics,” Jha says. “How polarization occurs in the election, how equations and strategies are formed, and how local narratives emerge during the campaign will determine the candidate’s fate.”

There are 121,012 voters in Sarlahi-4. According to Arbind Kumar Jha, information officer at the District Election Office, Sarlahi, there are 511,606 voters across the district’s four constituencies.