Shashanka assessing party loss by-polls

Nepali Congress leader Dr Shashanka Koirala has underlined the need of seriously assessing the result of recent House of Representatives (HoR) by-election. Talking to media here today, the leader said the party central committee should find out reasons behind party's unexpected result in the by-election.

"It a serious matter whether our popularity is diminishing," he said, adding the probability of emergence of new political forces is high when old parties lose popularity.

It may be noted that the NC has lost one HoR seat in the April 23 by-elections held in Tanahu-1, Chitwan-2 and Bara-2 with Swarnim Wagle of Rastriya Swatantra Party emerging victorious from Tanahu 1, the seat previously earlier won by the party.

 As Koirala said, intra-party issue is the reason for the loss and it has been demonstrated over the recent expansion of the Council of Ministers as well. --