{"id":423575,"date":"2026-01-20T19:40:44","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T13:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/?p=423575"},"modified":"2026-01-20T19:40:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T13:55:46","slug":"a-dozen-of-journalists-in-election-fray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/2026\/01\/20\/423575.html","title":{"rendered":"A dozen of journalists in election fray"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Kathmandu:<\/strong> More than a dozen of journalists have filed their candidacies for the March 5 election to the House of Representatives (HoR), marking a notable shift from newsroom to active politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the trend of journalists stepping into politics is not new in Nepal, their participation has witnessed a noticeable surge in the upcoming election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Journalist and outgoing Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Jagadish Kharel, resigned from the post and filed candidacy from Lalitpur constituency-2, representing the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A television programme presenter Rishi Dhamala filed candidacy from Rautahat constituency-4 on the behalf of the Aam Janata Party while RSP has also fielded journalist Kabir Rana from Bhaktapur constituency-2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Similarly, media professional Manarishi Dhital is running for the election from Jumla constituency-1 representing the Pragatishil Lokatantrik Party while Dr Dipendra Rokaya is contesting in Humla district as a Nepali Communist Party candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The same party has fielded journalist Rupa Maharjan for Kathmandu constituency-10, while Ajay Babu Siwakoti of Nepali Congress from Dolakha constituency-1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, Uddabraj Bhetwal is contesting in Kathmandu constituency-6, representing the RSP while Swagat Nepal from the same party in Jhapa constituency-2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Former journalist Surya Bahadur Thapa Chettri has filed his nomination from Pyuthan district, representing the CPN (UML).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, RSP&#8217;s President Rabi Lamichhane along with Deepak Bohora, Sobita Gautam and Nisha Dangi of the same parties, who all have journalistic backgrounds, are also contesting in the upcoming election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Among them, Lamichhane, Gautam and Dangi were elected in the previous HoR election held in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although the trend of journalists stepping into politics is not new in Nepal, their participation has witnessed a noticeable surge in the upcoming election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":423576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"reporter":[],"class_list":["post-423575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423575"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":423577,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423575\/revisions\/423577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423575"},{"taxonomy":"reporter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reporter?post=423575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}