Four months after youth-led Gen Z protests reshaped Nepal’s political landscape, four former prime ministers have filed their nomination papers from different constituencies for the March 5 general elections.
Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) chair and former prime minister K P Sharma Oli is contesting from Jhapa-5, while Pushpakamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) has filed his nomination from Rukum East.
Two other former prime ministers — Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Nepali Communist Party and Baburam Bhattarai of the Pragatisheel Lokatantrik Party — are contesting from Rautahat-1 and Gorkha-2 respectively.
However, Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and senior Nepali Communist Party leader Jhala Nath Khanal are not in the race.
“One of the main reasons why the Gen Z youths revolted in September last year was that over the last 15 years, the three top leaders, Deuba, Prachanda and Oli, grabbed the prime minister’s post turn by turn akin to a musical chair game,” said Pralhad Rijal, senior journalist and editor of Aarthik Dainik.
Of the two former prime ministers who are not contesting this time, Khanal has voluntarily chosen to remain away from the race but Deuba was forced to remain out because of the rebellion of young leaders in his own party.
“Deuba had desired to contest polls for the eighth time from his Dadeldhura constituency but the newly elected president of the party Gagan Thapa finally convinced him to remain away from the polls keeping with the Gen Z sentiments,” said Dhananjaya Sharma, academician and political analyst.
Meanwhile, it is not just former prime ministers that are in the fray. There are three mayors from across the country who quit their respective posts to try their luck at the hustings.
Prominent and also popular among the three is former mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Balendra Shah 'Balen,' who quit the post to contest from Jhapa-5 constituency in eastern Nepal.
The other two are Harka Sampang, mayor of Dharan Sub-metropolitan City, contesting from Sunsari-1 and Prachanda's daughter Renu Dahal, who was a mayor of Bharatpur Metropolitan City, to contest election from Chitawan-3 constituency.