By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS
Kathmandu : Nepal’s ruling parties Saturday kicked off their poll campaign in Terai plains despite violent opposition by both armed groups and regional parties.
Nearly three dozen people were injured in clashes, and the pilgrim city of Janakpur in the plains remained virtually paralysed due to a strike called by rebel groups, who had pledged to prevent the campaign.
Famed for its Janaki temple, Janakpur, the main town of Dhanusha district, saw about 4,000 security personnel draw a cordon around Bara Bugha area where the seven parties, including the Maoists, held a mass meet, their fifth joint campaign for the April 10 constituent assembly elections.
To foil the meet, three regional parties as well as two armed bands of former Maoists had called a shutdown in the district, closing educational institutions, shops and markets and not allowing transport to ply.
Supporters of the protesting parties tried to prevent the poll campaigners and spectators from reaching the venue, resulting in clashes and brick batting. Nearly three dozen people were injured in the clashes and security forces caught two people who were reported to be carrying arms.
Two Terai parties of former ministers, the Sadbhavana Party and the Terai Madhes Loktantrik Party, had vowed that they wouldn’t allow the campaign to take place. Sadbhavana’s ally, the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, that had in the past staged a series of crippling shutdowns in the Terai, was also opposing the seven-party meet.
In addition, two factions of the Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha, who left the Maoists to wage a new movement in the plains, had also asked Janakpur residents not to go to the public meeting.
Though the 200,000-strong crowd anticipated by the ruling parties failed to turn up, there were over 25,000 spectators who braved the threats and the transport strike.
While the government won the first round in the plains, the enduring tension and violence remain a serious concern, creating doubts about free and fair April elections.
In another Terai town Inaruwa, three blasts were reported near a meeting organised by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s Nepali Congress party.
However, no one was injured.
The Terai Madhes Loktantrik Party, led by Koirala’s former party man Mahanta Thakur, rejected a call by the government to open negotiations Friday, demanding that the state create a conducive atmosphere first by fulfilling their demands.
A local daily Saturday said the violence in the plains had shot up after the ruling alliance announced the new date for the twice-stalled election.
At least 10 people have been killed in the plains since Jan 11, the Kathmandu Post said.
Last year, the Koirala government failed to hold the crucial election in June due to the growing lawlessness in the Terai.
Though the Maoists, who waged a 10-year communist insurgency demanding the abolition of Nepal’s centuries-old crown, signed a peace pact in 2006, their success with the gun and the weaknesses of the interim government has spawned over a dozen armed groups in the Terai.
It has also triggered separate movements for autonomy in the Terai, whose residents remain one of the most neglected with little representation in Nepal’s security forces, judiciary and bureaucracy.