Nepal's Madhesi Parties Wiped Out in Polls, Secessionist Leader Quits Politics

No regional political party engaged in identity politics in Madhes secured a single seat under the First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system, and none of them secured the required three per cent of votes under the proportional representation system to elect any candidate to the House of Representatives, the lower house.

In the 275-member House of Representatives, 165 seats are filled by lawmakers elected through the FPTP system, while 110 seats are filled through the proportional representation system.

Speaking to local Prime Television, Raut - who had emerged as an alternative face in Madhes politics through the 2022 parliamentary elections - said that he would retire from parliamentary politics. According to the transcript of his interview made public by his secretariat on Monday, Raut said he had contested parliamentary elections against his personal wishes and would no longer run in the future.

Raut, who entered parliamentary politics by abandoning his secessionist activities in 2022, suffered defeat in the March 5 elections in Saptari-2 at the hands of Ramji Yadav, a candidate from the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which swept the elections.

Raut, who secured third position in terms of votes in the constituency, however clarified that he would continue to lead the party as long as it requires his leadership, even though he will no longer contest parliamentary elections. In the 2022 elections, his party had emerged as one of the national parties by securing six seats in the House of Representatives.

Raut's announcement has come at a time when regional political parties will have no representation in Nepal's lower house after maintaining a continuous presence in parliament since the 1991 elections.

Out of the 32 FPTP seats in the province, Prime Ministerial hopeful Balen Shah's RSP has won 30. The Nepali Congress bagged only one seat, while the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) secured one seat in the province.

Most Madhes-centric parties emerged strongly in Nepal's political scene after the 2007 Madhes revolt and had a strong presence in the Constituent Assembly following the 2008 elections. However, their presence and influence started to wane in subsequent elections as they faced accusations of abandoning the Madhes agenda for power politics, while internal infighting also divided Madhes-based forces.

On January 19, Balen Shah - who was popular among youth in the hilly regions - presented himself as the "son of Madhes" while speaking in Maithili. In a nine-minute speech, he called on voters to cast their ballots in favour of the RSP to give Nepal its first-ever Prime Minister from the Madhesi community.

Shah represents the Madhesi community which has an Indian origin and has long felt marginalised in Nepal's hill-dominated mainstream politics.

Shah's speech proved to be a masterstroke, as the RSP swept the elections in Madhes, even though the party had received around 75,000 votes and won no seats from the province in the 2022 elections.

In the 2022 election, the party had secured only around 75,000 votes and won no seats in the province. But within four years, the RSP has won about 95 per cent of the FPTP seats and left the Nepali Congress and others far behind in the proportional representation vote count.

Madhes-centric parties have never been in such a weak position since the 1991 elections. Even before the 2007 Madhes movement, the Nepal Sadbhawana Party was a well-established force in the region with representation in parliament.

Besides Raut, the president of the Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal (JSPN), Upendra Yadav, lost in Saptari-3. In Rautahat-3, Aam Janata Party candidate Prabhu Sah also suffered defeat. Rajendra Mahato, who formed the National Mukti Party and contested in Sarlahi-2, ended up in fourth place.

Keshav Jha, General Secretary of the Rastriya Mukti Party, told IANS that the "Balen wave" proved fatal for Madhes-centric political parties as well as for traditionally large political parties in the recently-concluded elections.

"Madhes-centric parties also suffered defeat because of the faults of traditionally large political parties, including the Nepali Congress, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), and the Nepal Communist Party," he said. "It is like damage to small houses when a big building falls."

However, he said that despite the electoral defeat in the latest elections, the agenda of Madhes will not die. "We will come back stronger in the future," he vowed.

- IANS