UML leaders said that they have decided to give priority to "the candidates´ personal touch and direct interaction with voters" during the ongoing election campaign.[break]
The party´s central election steering committee member Bishnu Rimal said that they deliberately avoided holding of mass gatherings and delivering one-way speeches of leaders and candidates.
"We have decided not to gather people at certain places and force them to sit through hours-long speeches. We have rather decided to give continuity to door-to-door campaigns, meetings and direct interactions with voters," Rimal told Republica. "UML candidates and leaders will listen to the opinions and grievances of voters and commit right there what they can do to address them."
According to him, the party leaders decided to break the traditional method of election publicity and adopt new ways of reaching out to voters. He said that his party wouldn´t compete with the rival parties to gather locals for show of strength in the run up to the polls.
He said the party´s latest plan is paying off. "As our leaders and candidates have been meeting the voters by reaching their homes and interacting with the locals, it has helped us identify our voters and the neutral ones," said Rimal. "It has helped us to work on further plans."
CPN-UML has also sending text messages to voters and engaging them through social media as well.According to UML election campaign secretariat, party Chairman Jhalanath Khanal has remained busy in door-to-door campaigns in his constituency in Sarlahi. Khanal is contesting from his home district Ilam and Sarlahi.
The party´s senior leader and former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal was busy on Friday interacting with people of Gairigaun and Tinkune-Kotesthwar areas that come under Kathmandu constituency 2. He is contesting from Kathmandu-2 and one constituency from his home district in Rautahat.
Similarly, the party´s other two key leaders KP Sharma Oli and Ishwar Pokharel also gave continuity to their door-to-door campaigns in their respective constituencies. Oli is contesting from Jhapa-3 and Pokharel from Kathmandu-5.
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Nepal claimed that UCPN (Maoist) leaders may conspire to disrupt polls if the Maoists sense a possibility of huge loss in the coming election.
He argued that the 10-day general strike called by agitating CPN-Maoist would help the UCPN (Maoist) leaders to create a ground for poll disruption.
"If the UCPN (Maoist) leaders assess possible huge loss in the election, they might provoke violent activities and blame the Baidya-led Maoist party´s cadres for that," Nepal told a group of reporters at Koteshwar on Friday. "I urge one and all to be alert and very responsible until the polls are conducted." He urged the government agencies to watch such activities closely.
Meantime, UML General Secretary Ishwar Pokharel has said his party would take initiative to accommodate the Baidya-led Maoist party in the new Constituent Assembly even though the agitating party has boycotted the polls. "We are serious about accommodating Baidya´s party in the political course. We can include them in the CA even by amending some provisions in the interim constitution," he said.
During the election campaign in Kathmandu-5 on Friday, a group of doctors, including senior cardiologist Dr Arun Sayami and Dr Dharma Kanta Banskota, expressed their solidarity to Pokharel.
"I have joined the election campaign to help Pokharel win the election because he is an established national politician and can play an important role not only for the development of this constituency but also in national politics," he said.
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