Kathmandu, Dec 6: The by-elections, held to pick the representatives for the vacant posts in the House of Representatives, State Assembly and local units on Nov 30, have sent strong message to the major and minor political parties. Of the total 52 posts, the ruling Communist Party of Nepal secured 31, opposition Nepali Congress (NC) 13, Socialist Party 4, Ratsriya Janata Party (RJP) 3, Rastriya Janamorcha (left alliance) 1 and independent (CPN rebel)1.
Of course, the ruling CPN clinched the highest number of seats but the NC has won important positions in communist strongholds, namely the mayoral post of Dharan Sub-Metropolitan City and state lawmaker in Bhaktapur-1. The outcomes are clearly the writing on the wall for the CPN. Medias have reported that the CPN lost elections to the post of Ward Chairs in Bharatapur of Chitwan and Dang which are supposed to be dominated by the party chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda and Chief Minister Shankar Pokharel respectively. The polls took place in the aftermath of the unification of erstwhile CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre. The arithmetic of results of last elections was in the favour of the CPN but it was not the case during the by-polls.
A secretariat meeting of CPN Wednesday instructed the concerned party committees to present reports on the details of by-elections to it immediately. The move came in the wake of the party defeat in its bastions. The meeting also decided to seriously to evaluate the unexpected outcomes. Though the poll fiasco in Dharan Metropolis City has surprised many, the local leaders agree that ‘arbitrary taxation system’ imposed by the CPN-led Metropolis City administration caused the poll catastrophe.
The opposition has cashed in on the growing dissatisfaction of the people with the various taxes levied by the City. The newly elected Mayor, Tilak Rai, has announced to make the tax system scientific and practical. Likewise, the local committee of the CPN has instructed its Parliamentary Party of Dharan Metropolis to review and slash tax rates. This particular example might put pressure on the top party leadership to review the tax policy applied by its three-layer governments – federal, state and local- which has drawn flak from the diverse sections of the society.