With just days to go for the May 13 local elections, candidates have ramped up their campaigns in all 753 local units across the country. The race for the mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City is particularly charged. Kathmandu’s voters want a competent leader, someone who can tackle everything from waste management to traffic congestion to poor service delivery. So who is the right person to lead the metro? Here is your guide to the strengths and weaknesses of top contenders for the post. 

Balen Shah

·   Independent candidate

·   Born on 27 April 1990 in Kathmandu

·   Graduate in civil engineering, post-grad in structural engineering

Strength	Weakness
Is strongly backed by the youth	Lacks experience in politics
Has clear agendas and is an appealing speaker	Accused of using insensitive words against LGBTIQA+ community as a rapper
Technically savvy and has worked with various local units in post-earthquake reconstruction	Has little appeal among middle-aged and elderly voters
Can work long hours	As an independent candidate, his election campaign pales in comparison to those of candidates from political parties, reducing his reach
Comes from non-political background and can work without any political influence	May not be able to collaborate and cooperate with political parties’ representatives

Keshav Sthapit

·   CPN-UML

·   Born on 14 September 1959 in Kathmandu

·   Under-Grad in Humanities

Strength	Weakness
Has experience of leading Kathmandu as its two-time mayor	Implicated in two sexual harassment cases
Established himself as a man of action in his previous mayoral stint in 1997	Is aggressive and uses disrespectful language at others
A finalist in World Mayor 2004, a global mayoral evaluation	Not a universally trusted figure in trusted UML as he has repeatedly been in and out of the party
Is a master planner of post-1997 Kathmandu city	Tried and tested, but not a trusted person. He was accused of lack of transparency during his first mayoral stint
Has strong support of CPN-UML and its supporters, and Kathmandu has been a traditional UML bastion	Bidhya Sundar Shakya, the outgoing mayor of Kathmandu, isn’t happy with Sthapit’s candidacy, which could cut Shakya panel’s votes

Madan Das Shrestha

·   Rastriya Prajatantra Party

·   Born on 27 April 1948 in Kathmandu

·   (Didn’t want to disclose his academic qualification)

Strength	Weakness
Involved in social works	Has no clear electoral agendas
Spotless character	Is not a fluent and appealing speaker
Is a chairperson of an umbrella organization for 60+ aged people, National Senior Citizen Union	Has no political experience
Initiated road expansion and sewage management works in the Dillibazar area at his own expense	A rather old candidate
Is a veteran actor and well-known figure	Has little appeal among young and middle-aged voters

Srijana Singh

·   Nepali Congress

·   Born on 25 August 1962 in Gorkha

·   Graduate in economics, post-grad in sociology

Strength	Weakness
In politics since a young age	Many voters believe she was made a candidate because she is the wife of Nepali Congress leader Prakash Man Singh and the daughter-in-law of Ganesh Man Singh
Comes from a family with a strong political background	Is a less-known political figure, even among Nepali Congress voters
Was a youth leader during the 1990 civil movement	Was inactive in mainstream politics for decades
Has support of young Congress cadres	Has seldom appeared in mayoral debates and public interactions
Is a former chairperson of Nepal Women Union, the women wing of congress and a women rights activist. Could appeal to women	Not an appealing speaker

Samikchya Baskota

·   Bibeksheel Sajha Party

·   Born on 8 Feb 1984 in Panchthar

·   Graduate in constitutional law (LLB), post-grad in US legal studies (LLM)

Strength	Weakness
Legally sound and filled with ideas on how local units can better perform	Lost provincial assembly election from Kathmandu-1 (A)
Stood against family politics (her father was a home state minister from Nepali Congress)	Barely seen in public after losing the provincial assembly elections
Is an entrepreneur and has management experience	Accused of getting the mayoral ticket as the party president’s favorite
Is a women rights activist	Removed as Bagmati province coordinator of the party for alleged incompetence
Has clear agendas and is an appealing speaker	Poor at campaigning

‘The race is between Sthapit and Singh’

Bishnu Dahl, Political analyst

Kathmandu Metropolitan City, being the most educated metropolis, bucks the national electoral trend. Residents of Kathmandu study each mayoral candidate closely before casting their ballots. The positive and negative sides of individual candidates hence make a difference, irrespective of their party affiliations.

If you closely follow voter demography, there are now as many indigenous voters as immigrant ones. This is not a good position to be for Keshav Sthapit or Srijana Singh. Yet the other candidates like Balen Shah, Samikshya Baskota, and Madan Das Shrestha won’t be a threat to them. They have not been able to convincingly present themselves. Social media has backed Shah, but what matters is the 300,000-strong vote-bank of Kathmandu.

I would have guaranteed Sthapit for mayor had he not been charged with #MeToo. Also, the recent incident at the National College which brought him under the radar of the Election Commission could hamper his chances. But along with Singh, he is still a major contender. This race is essentially between Singh and Sthapit.