Dr. Khim Lal Devkota has won the vacant National Assembly election in Bagmati on Thursday.
He defeated Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa Badal. In the by-election held in Hetauda of
Makwanpur on Thursday, Devkota won with 5,088 votes.
Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa from the CPN-UML and Dr. Khim Lal Devkota from other
parties had nominated candidates in the election. Similarly, Krishna Bahadur Tamang had
registered his candidature on behalf of Nepal Mazdoor Kisan Party. Devkota has won by getting
more votes.
While Dr Devkota got 5,088 votes, Home Minister Thapa got 4,014 votes. Devkota was backed
by the Nepali Congress, the CPN-Maoist, the Janata Samajwadi Dal and the UML’s Madhav
Kumar faction. The seat contested for the National Assembly seat was vacated due to cloud
cover. Badal had lost his parliamentary seat on April 19 after leaving the CPN-Maoist center and
joining the CPN-M. UML had again asked Badal to contest for the post of MP. In any case,
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli was adamant that Ram Bahadur Thapa should win the seat.
Initially, it was reported in the media that Badal had decided not to run for parliament.
It was difficult for Bandal to win the post which became vacant due to his own reasons. In the
end, he lost the election. He easily became the Member of Parliament from Bagmati Pradesh on
14 January 2074 by becoming a candidate from the Maoist Center. One month later, on March 3,
2074, Ram Bahadur Thapa Badal became the Home Minister. As the top leader of the Maoist
center, he was able to lead the government from the Maoist center. After joining the government,
the Maoists had decided to leave the center and join the UML. He had returned to the Maoist
center only on June 20, 2008. Badal, who was considered a mastermind of the Maoist war, split
from Prachanda’s party in 2071 BS.
Badal was confident that Prime Minister Oli would win the seat in any case. But Devkota, a
member of his own party, has defeated Badal by a wide margin. Devkota is known as the leader
of UML’s Madhav and Jhalanath factions. He was assisted by the Maoist Center and the Nepali
Congress in the by-elections for the National Assembly. Accordingly, he has won the National
Assembly seat. Devkota is a permanent resident of Kolhavi, Bara. Dr. Khimlal was politically a
member of the then Mal पा party during the Panchayat period. Dr. Devkota received his PhD in
Federal Economics from Tribhuvan University in 2014. He also holds a master’s degree in
financial economics from Cyprus. After the 2074 state assembly election, Devkota Bagmati was
appointed as the head of the state’s policy and planning commission. He is openly in favor of
Madhav as the dispute within the party is escalating. Currently, he has been elected as a member
