LONDON:- Nepali-origin couple Jit Ranabhat and Gaumaya Gurung have won a historic victory in the local elections held in the UK on Friday.
Labor Party candidate Jeet Ranabhat was elected as a councilor from the Plumstead and Glyndon ward of the Royal Borough of Greenwich in London, receiving 1,610 votes.
Ranabhat was previously elected as a councilor for the first time in 2022 and has also held the posts of mayor and deputy mayor of the same borough.
Similarly, his wife Gaumaya Gurung ‘Ranabhat’ has also been elected as a councilor for the first time from the borough’s Abywood ward. Both the Ranabhat couple are Labour Party candidates.
Jeev Narayan Belvase of the Conservative Party has been elected as a councilor for the second time from the Manor Park ward in the Rushmore borough of Aldershot. Belvase has long been active in the Nepali community in the UK and is also a former president of the Greater Rushmore Nepalese Community. Ex Gurkhas Uttar Bahadur Gurung, a Labor Party candidate from Wellington Ward in Rushmore, has also been elected as a councilor.
Similarly, Labour Party’s Pratiksha Gurung has been elected as a councilor for the first time from the Battle ward of Reading Borough. Conservative Party’s Lakshya Gurung has been elected as a councilor for the third time from the Edgwarebury ward of the London Borough of Barnet.
Some candidates of Nepali origin who contested this election have been defeated. Dr. Vishal Gurung, who was the Conservative Party candidate in the Wellington ward of Rushmore, was not elected in his second attempt. He is known as a young social activist in the Nepali community in the UK.
Similarly, Ex Nepal Police DSP Shivaji Shrestha, who contested for the position of councilor from the Labor Party in Basingstoke, was also defeated. Narendra Kandel and Tom Adhikari, who had contested for the Greenwich Borough of London with the support of Jeremy Corbyn-led Your Party, were also defeated. Kandel was the candidate for the Plumstead and Glyndon ward, while Adhikari was the candidate for Woolwich.
Indrahang Limbu, who stood as a Conservative candidate in Feltham North in the London Borough of Hounslow, was also defeated. Gyan Prasad Gurung, a Conservative candidate in Swindon, was also defeated.
The results of the local elections this time, with the votes received by candidates from the Nepali community, who have been participating in mainstream politics in Britain, can be expected to see the major political parties give adequate space to politicians of Gorkha and Nepali origin in the upcoming elections.