Ram Dayal Mandal, UML candidate from Mahottari-3, is on the wanted list of the district police. But he has been campaigning openly for the elections. The Supreme Court had sentenced Mandal to three years in prison for assaulting Jasbir Yadav of Jaleswor-8, a few years back. He also faces charges of robbery.
DSP Rajendra Babu Regmi of Jaleswor told us, “The man is an absconding criminal and we tried to nab him on the day of filing candidacy. But someone else filed candidacy on his behalf.” Sources in the district, however, say the police isn’t arresting Mandal because there is political pressure from the top. Mandal is known to be close to Madhav Nepal.
Election campaign in all six constituencies of Mahottari is in a full swing. At a corner tea stall in Jaleswor we met local intellectual and rights activists Shyam Sundar Sah who told us over a cup of tea, “It’s an evenly balanced contest here. No clear favourites in any area.” Although, after being nudged a little Sah did mention that NC candidate in area 1 is giving UCPN (M)’s Giriraj Mani Pokhrel a tough time.
In constituency 2, all top contestants are women belonging to same caste, which makes for another evenly balanced contest here. Similarly, area 4 is a constituency with mixed demography and so are the candidates. Mahendra Raya of the NC and Sarat Singh Bhandari of the Rastriya Samajwadi Party look strong in their respective constituencies.
Mahottari has a relatively peaceful and vibrant campaigning environment, with all parties mobilising their resources to maximum. “I know what the EC's guidelines are, but the way parties have been mobilising, each will end up spending over a crore,” says Sah. But as he got up to leave, he said in a hushed tone, “Wait until 17 November, because that’s when the ‘setting’ happens.”
ANURAG ACHARYA and NAVIN JHA in MAHOTTARI