Chiranjivi Oli-Led Panel Sweeps Nepalgunj Chamber Election, Acharya Wins Deputy General Secretary Post

Dragon Media Correspondent

The joint panel led by Chiranjivi Oli has secured a dominant victory in the Nepalgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry election, winning nearly all major positions except deputy general secretary.

Oli was elected president with 1,386 votes, defeating independent business group candidate Dhruva Prasad Dahal, who received 374 votes. Oli won by a margin of 1,012 votes.

In the women’s vice-president race, Rupa Ojha of the joint panel secured 1,166 votes, while her rival Uma Grandan received 503 votes. Bishnu Shrestha was elected general secretary with 1,287 votes, defeating Dipendra Joshi, who received 408 votes.

The only major setback for the joint panel came in the deputy general secretary race. Independent candidate Pradeep Acharya won with 864 votes, narrowly defeating the panel’s Shiva Prasad Dahal, who received 842 votes. The margin between the two candidates was just 22 votes.

Tikamani Upadhyay was elected treasurer with 917 votes. His rivals Surya Shrestha and Narayan Prasai received 598 and 183 votes respectively.

Santosh Poudel, Top Bahadur Thapa, Nandaram Jaisi, Sharad Adhikari, Nagendra Shahi, Aditya Gupta, Jahangir Musalman, Sharad Rijal, Suraj Bhandari and Atul Kumar Gupta were elected as executive committee members.

Earlier, Kamal Kumar Karki had been elected unopposed as industry vice-president and Bishnu Prasad Shrestha as commerce vice-president. Rajiv Talanga and Abdul Wahid Ansari were elected unopposed as associate members, while Phanadhar Bhandari and Suresh Jung Banjara secured affiliated member positions without contest.

A total of 1,847 of the chamber’s 3,863 eligible voters cast ballots in Saturday’s election. While the joint panel won most positions by wide margins, Acharya’s narrow victory in the deputy general secretary race emerged as the main exception to the panel’s overall sweep.