KATHMANDU: Jagannath Poudel, an independent candidate for the post of mayor of Chitwan’s Bharatpur Metropolitan City, has received ‘pineapple’ as election symbol.
He said the Election Commission (EC) assigned him pineapple as election symbol for the May 13 election.
A leader of the Nepali Congress (NC) until Friday, Poudel said that he tried to contest the election from the ‘tree’ symbol but did not get the chance.
The NC expelled him on Friday for not withdrawing his independent candidature in Bharatpur where the ruling party has allocated the mayor’s post to the electoral alliance partner Maoist Center. The Maoist Center is once again fielding Renu Dahal, Prachanda’s daughter, for Bharatpur mayor.
Clarifying he did not rebel against the NC candidate and the election symbol tree, he said he was campaigning to save the party. “We have got pineapple election symbol. It is also a plant but a small one as opposed to NC’s big tree,” said Poudel. “It is a fruit with medicinal properties that can cure many diseases.”
NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba had sent leader Bal Krishna Khand and Minister of State Umesh Shrestha to Bharatpur to convince mayoral candidate Poudel to withdraw his candidacy, but in vain. Along with Poudel, his candidacy supporters Krishna Lal Sapkota and Mina Kharel have also been expelled from the NC.
Poudel started his election campaign by laying a wreath at the statue of BP Koirala at the BP Koirala Cancer Hospital in Bharatpur. He said now the election campaign would intensify in all 29 wards of Bharatpur metropolis.
Launching the election campaign, leader Bhim Bahadur Shrestha said that they had started a campaign to save the future of NC Chitwan.
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