Polarization Is Complete: Nepali Congress No Longer A Terai Party

Image via WikipediaThe Nepali Congress launched its movements and revolutions over half a century with the Terai as its backbone of support. The Nepali Congress enjoyed power a few different times after 1990 because of the large number of votes it collected in the Terai.

But now the Nepali Congress has become a purely Pahadi party.

Of the 25 elected to the NC central committee, and the 14 elected for the 14 zones are all Pahadi last names.

Those elected under the open competition are:

Gagan Thapa - 2061
Arjun Narsingh K.C - 2024
Khum Bahadur Khadka - 1791
Shashank Koirala - 1769
Pradeep Giri - 1741
Sujata Koirala - 1739
Ram Chandra Poudel - 1703
Ram Sharan Mahat - 1699
Bal Krishna Khad- 1606
NP Saud - 1556
Shekhar Koirala - 1531
Mahesh Acharya - 1501
Minendra Rijal - 1435
Chandra Bhandari - 1369
Prakash Saran Mahat - 1386
Krishna Sitaula - 1373
Narayan Khadka - 1340
Bal Bahadur K.C - 1286
Gopal Man Shrestha - 1286
Purna Bahadur Khadka - 1246
Shankar Bhandari - 1215
Kul Bahadur Gurung - 1155
Manmohan Bhattarai - 1080
Gyanendra Bahadur Karki - 1068
Deep Kumar Upadhyaya - 1020

Those elected from the zones are:

Narendra Bikram Nemwang (Mechi)
Amod Prasad Upadhyaya (Koshi)
Ram Kumar Choudhary (Sagarmatha)
Nabindra Raj Joshi (Bagmati)
Anand Prasad Dhungana (Janakpur)
Ramesh Rijal (Narayani)
Surendra Pandey (Gandaki)
Krishna Chandra Nepali (Lumbini)
Arjun Joshi (Dhaulagiri)
Deepak Giri (Rapti)
Jeevan Bahadur Shahi (Karnali)
Kishor Singh Rathore (Bheri)
Badri Pandey (Seti)
Dilendra Prasad Badu (Mahakali)

This is not a party that lost an election in the Terai and is now working hard to recapture its base in the Terai. This is a party that wants to go back to the good old days of the 1990s when it could ride roughshod on the Terai without worrying about losing its voter base. Those days are long gone.

The Nepali Congress got trounced in the Terai during the last election. Now it stands to get wiped out in the next.

And the ruling elite in Kathmandu are back to wanting to deprive the Teraiwasis of their basic voting rights.

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