by Purushottam Poudel in The Kathmandu Post, November 25, 2022.
Sujita Koirala’s family from Kaushaltar in Bhaktapur had been voting for the mainstream political parties over the years. However, this time, her family couldn’t remain untouched by the wave in favour of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP). She and her husband voted for the new party because her daughter living in Sydney, Australia urged them to do so.
“My daughter specifically urged us to vote for Ghanti [election symbol of the party],” said Koirala, 42. “We agreed to what she said.” Her daughter Prashansa Dahal, 21, has been studying in Australia for the last four years.
Though many people believe that the electoral success of the RSP in the federal elections was due to the disenchantment of people with the traditional political parties, people like Prashansa, who live abroad, had urged their family members back in Nepal to cast their votes in favour of the RSP this election. Not only Prashansa, there are many others who were exhorted by their family members living abroad to vote for the RSP.
Prakash Neupane, 25, of Banke, currently working in Bangkok, was a rap singer while in Nepal. Neupane urged his family, regular voters of the Nepali Congress, to vote for the RSP in this election. He urged not only his family members, but also the family of his brother to do the same.
“My family members accepted my request and voted for the new party to bring in a change in the country,” Naupane told the Post over the phone. “Just shouting for change was not enough, this was the right time for the youths to go and vote for a change. Many people living overseas urged their family members to vote for a change, since every single vote matters in an election.”
Another voter from Soti village of Tanahun-1 who didn’t want to be identified since she is a long-time member of the Nepali Congress, said her children who are living in the US and Australia urged her family members to vote for the RSP during this election.
“My son, 27, who is in America and daughter, 34, in Australia pressured us to vote for the RSP,” she said. “Since the mainstream political parties were engaged in corruption, nepotism and power mongering, my children were upset with the political situation of the country. Therefore, they urged us to change our vote, despite knowing that we are Congress cadres.”
Rabi Lamichhane, the president of the RSP has a huge fan following due to the TV program he hosted for a couple of years. He often came down heavily on the political parties, politicians and top officials for their wrongdoings through his TV program. He also conducted some sting operations to expose incidents of bribery. He rescued some Nepali migrant workers who were caught in a crisis in a foreign country. Such initiatives made Lamichhane popular among the Nepali migrant workers and students studying abroad.
Though there were people who criticised the way he hosted the TV show, there were also people who were very much impressed by his aggressive style of grilling leaders, bureaucrats and others, involved in wrongdoings. He would follow such cases based on public complaints and that helped him become popular among the masses.
Ashish Ghimire, 25, now works in Saudi Arabia. Back in 2019, when he had an asthma attack, he had sought help from Lamichhane in order to be relieved by his company. Lamichhane then was a host of News24 TV and had been supporting Nepali youths facing difficulties abroad.
Similar to Ghimire, there are hundreds of Nepali youths abroad who had sought help from Lamichhane. In this election, the same people urged their family members to vote for Lamichhane and his party. Lamichhane who contested the election from Chitwan-2 has won the election by a huge margin. While Lamichhane got 49,264 votes, his nearest competitor, Umesh Shrestha of the Congress, secured only 14,983.
Including Lamichhane, the RSP has won 7 seats as of Thursday evening. The party won federal seats of Kathmandu constituencies 2, 6, 7 and 8 along with Lalitpur-3 and Chitwan-1. The RSP is in the third position in the votes secured under the proportional representation system.
At a time when the traditional political parties are struggling to get votes from their so-called stronghold areas, the newly formed RSP has come up with an impactful performance in the federal elections. The party has been successful in producing positive results in its first attempt at the hustings. And, the Nepalis living abroad have become one of the key factors in the party’s success.
https://kathmandupost.com/politics/2022/11/25/expat-push-key-to-swatantra-party-s-electoral-success
