Nepal, Jan. 30 -- This is an election for a chief executive as personality cult takes over politics In December we headlined an analysis in this paper that the election was going to be a fight between Old and New. With just a month to go for polls, it is now looking more like New vs New.

The symbolic Balendra Shah vs K P Oli struggle has now been replaced by a face-off between Shah and Gagan Thapa, the new leader of the Nepali Congress (NC).

The Tarai with its vast vote bank has become the battleground for this fight with Shah contesting against Oli in Jhapa and Thapa standing in Sarlahi. And social media is the arena for this epic clash of personality cults.

Which means that instead of finding solutions to problems like health, educat...