BUTWAL:  Nepali Congress candidate Khel Raj Pandey has won the mayoral post of Butwal sub-metropolis, the hometown of CPN-UML vice-chairman Bishnu Poudel, by a wide margin.

Pandey, who was defeated by Shivraj Subedi of UML in the 2074 election, has defeated Baburam Bhattarai of UML by 7,533 votes this time. While Pandey was elected with 30,130 votes, UML’s Bhattarai got 22,597 votes.

Pandey, who is also the NC president of Butwal Municipality, had the support of the ruling parties CPN-Maoist Center, CPN-Unified Socialist, Samajwadi Party, Janata Samajwadi Party and Rastriya Janamorcha.

With this victory of Pandey, the Congress has ascended to Butwal’s power after 25 years. In Butwal, the UML had been winning all the elections of 2054 BS.

However, UML’s Sabitra Aryal has been elected as the deputy mayor. Aryal defeated Chin Bahadur Gurung of Maoist Center by 7,922 votes. While Aryal got elected with 24,904 votes, Gurung got 16,980 votes.