Sindhuli: Abinash Basnet has been elected district chair of the Rastriya Swatantra Party in Sindhuli district. The first district convention of the party opted for voting to select its leadership after efforts for a consensus-based committee turned unsuccessful.
According to National News Agency Nepal, in the voting held on Saturday, Basnet secured 181 votes against 88 obtained by his nearest competitor, Brikh Abrader (Ashok) Bamjan. The third contender for the position, Karna Bahadur Karki, received four votes.
In the election for vice-chair, Ramchandra Adhikari emerged victorious with 103 votes, while his nearest competitor, Sagar Khatri, secured 92 votes, followed by Dilip Jung Thapa with 66 votes. Lal Prasad (LP) Devkota was elected as the district secretary with 186 votes, while his competitor Rom Bahadur Devkota received 71 votes. Dinesh Prasad Sapkota (Motu) won the election for joint-secretary with 130 votes, defeating his closest rival Ramesh Khatri, who received 116 votes.
For the open member position, Diwas Pahadi was elected, and Kumar Rasaili was elected as a Dalit member. In the category of women members, Surya Kumari Gautam and Sunita Gajurel were elected unopposed. Bamjan, who was defeated in the race for district chair, has been nominated as a District Committee member as per the party statute. The first meeting of the District Committee will nominate the remaining two members of the new committee.
Additionally, Manish Karki has been elected the coordinator for Sindhuli constituency 1, and Kailash Thapa for constituency 2. A total of 274 representatives participated in the convention.