A many as 160 candidates of Nepal’s Constitutent Assembly election scheduled for April 10 are from Dalit communities. This is the first time in the political history of Nepal that over hundred Dalit candidates are contesting in the national general election.

The chart below shows the political parties fielding two or more candidates from Dalit candidates in the general elections for Constituent Assembly scheduled for April 10 in Nepal.

Political parties fielding two or more Dalit Candidates in April 10 CA elections

Dalit Janajati Party has fielded the largest number (30) of candidates from Dalit communities, followed by Jana Morcha Nepal and CPN (Maoists) with 20 and 13 Dalit candidates, respectively. Other political parties with three or more Dalit candidates are Rastriya Janamorch (10), CPN (Unified) (8), Rastriya Janashakti Party (8), CPN (ML) (6), Socialist Democratic Party, Nepal (5), Nepal Peasants & Workers Party (4), CPN (Unified Marxist)(3) and NSP (Anandadevi) (3). The chart also shows five political parties including CPN (UML), one of the largest parties, which have fielded two Dalit candidates each.

Nepali Congress, one of the largest party has fielded only one Dalit candidate, while other smaller parties fielding one Dalit candidate each are Socialist Party, Nepal, Peace Party Nepal, Nepali Janta Dal, Nepali Congress, Nepal Sukumbasi Party (Democratic), Nepal Rastriya Janakalyan Party, Nepal Janata Party, Nepal Dalit Sramik Morcha, National Democratic Party, Nepal, National Democratic Party, League Nepal Shanti Ekta Party, Jana Mukti PartyNepal, Hindu Democratic Party and Dalit Liberation Party.

There are 25 independent Dalit candidates contesting in the CA elections.

The list of Dalit candidates, with their age, gender and party affiliations in Nepali is given in the link below.

CA Dalit Candidates

The list and analysis of Dalit candidates were prepared based on the data extracted from ekantipur.com, and are intended for having an general indication of Dalit representation in the CA elections. The results of analysis presented here are not official data and are not completely reliable. The basis of determining any candidate as a Dalit candidate was her or his surname that might have sounded like a known surname from Dalit communities.

Analysis presented by:

Pratik Pande and Bhakti Nepal
nepaldalitinfo@yahoo.com