POKHARA: CPN (Unified Socialist) leader Dhanraj Acharya has been elected as the 15th mayor of Pokhara Metropolitan City (PMC).

Acharya, a candidate from the ruling coalition, has ensured his victory by leading his closest rival by more votes than the ones left to be counted.

Acharya got 56,471 votes out of 138,211 votes counted so far.

Krishna Thapa, the nearest rival of UML, got only 51,585 votes. There are still 5,000 votes to be counted.

On the other hand, UML’s Manju Gurung is close to victory. She is ahead of Nepali Congress’ Kopila Ranabhat by a margin of 4,035 votes. While Gurung got 58,582 votes, Ranabhat polled 54,547 votes.

Pokhara, which was formed as a Nagar Panchayat in 2016 BS, has already had 14 mayors. Shiva Bahadur Thapa served as the first mayor from 2016 to 2018 BS.

Pokhara became a metropolis in 2074 BS with the restructuring of the state in line with the new Constitution. UML’s Man Bahadur GC was elected as the 14th mayor.

After the end of his five-year tenure, Acharya, who is now the district chairman of the CPN (Unified Socialist), which has split from the CPN-UML, as the 15th mayor, has taken the helm of Pokhara Metropolis.

There were 23 candidates vying for the post of the Pokhara mayor.