Maoists leading with five seats in Nepal polls

Kathmandu, Apr 12 : The Communist Party of Nepal (CPN)-Maoists have won five seats and appear to sweep the polls shown by the initial results of counting of votes in the Constituent Assembly elections of Nepal.

Till Saturday morning, Maoists have won five seats -- Pampha Bhusal in Lalitpur, Rajkaji Maharjan in Lalitpur, Dev Gurung in Manang, Lila Somai in Palpa, Krishna Bahadur Mahara in Dang, while Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) has won two seats -- Chandra Bahadur Gurung in Mustang and Kul Prasad Nepal in Palpa and Nepali Congress (NC) has won only one -- Prakash Man Singh in Kathmandu.

The Maoists have also made major inroads into the Kathmandu Valley constituencies.

In Kathmandu District's ten constituencies, the Nepali Congress (NC) has won in Constituency -1. In the remaining constituencies, NC is leading in three, UML in one and Maoists in five.

In Constituency-2, UML General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal is trailing behind Maoist candidate Jhakku Subedi.

Maoist Chairman Prachanda is leading in Kathmandu Constituency-10.

After defeating UML's Raghuji Pantin in Constituency-3, Maoist candidate Pampha Bhusal told reporters that she would now work to translate the commitment to establish federal republic by uprooting feudalism.

"I will also work hard to ensure inclusion of women in all organs of state," neplanews.com quoted her as saying.

Another CPN-Maoist candidate Krishna Bahadur Mahara defeated his closest contender Anita Devkota of Nepali Congress in Dang Constituency-3.

A jubiliant Mahara, who is also the spokesperson of his party, claimed that his party would secure a majority in this election.

Another Maoist Minister in the Koirala cabinet, Hisila Yami, is leading in Kathmandu Constituency-7 and is expected to win there. In Bhaktapur, Nepal Workers and Peasants Party (NWPP) is leading in both constituencies.

The valley used to be a stronghold of the UML in past elections.

According to media reports, Maoists are leading in over 40 places, while the NC and the UML are leading in around dozen each.

In far and mid western districts of Dang, Bardiya, Kanchanpur, Maoists are leading in most seats. Similarly in Kavre District they are leading in three out of four constituencies.

In Chitwan, the Maoists are leading in three out of five constituencies. In Jhapa, they are leading in five out of eight constituencies.

ANI