Chiranjibi Dhakal has been elected chairman of Yeti Nepalese Association.

Mr Dhakal was elected chairman with 359 votes while his nearest rival Umesh Moktan secured only 241 votes.  Rabindra Kandel, Kamal Bhandari,  Rajendra Pudasaini ,  Sundar Khatiwada, Devraj Acharya, Dhruba Dhakal and Rajan Chhetri have been elected as senior vice chairman, vice chairman, general secretary, treasurer, publication secretary, social and sports secretary respectively.

The newly elected members of the Yeti Association are Basu Lamichhane, Manisha  Dangol, Bishnu Tripathi, Rishiram Subedi, Dharma Bahadur  Tamang,  Padam Kumari Tamang and Chetnath Khanal. There were two panels led by Dhakal and Moktan. Almost all the elected members were from Dhakal panel.  Only three members of Moktan panel were elected in the election participated by  over 600 members.

After election , Chairman Dhakal told outlooknepal that the new committee will expand its activities in other areas of the United Kingdom in the coming days.

“ It is felt that the Yeti Association is limited to London therefore our first priority will be to make it a social organisation of all Nepalese living all over the United Kingdom,” he said.

We have decided to expand the activities of the Yeti out of London and there is participation of people from various other areas which could be seen in this election too, he said.

Mr Dhakal said “ We will expand this organisation as a social organisation of all Nepalese.”  We will also amend the rules of the organisation, he said.  The membership  fee is felt to be expensive therefore we will reduce the membership fee and involve all friends in our activities, he said.  At present the organisation  charges  10 pound membership for a year.

We will give continuity to the regular annual programme like sports and cultural activities, he said and added that Yeti Nepali Association will be democratise with more participations from members.

Founded  in May,  1960 in London at the initiative of then crown prince Birendra and Nepalese students  including  Pashupati SJB Rana, Hemang Dixit, Angur Baba Joshi, S K Malla, Prabal Rana and Surya B Basnyat, Yeti  is the oldest organisation of the Nepalese outside Nepal.

It was founded with a view to “promoting goodwill and co-operation amongst Nepalese, to preserve Nepali culture and tradition, to voice Nepali aspirations whenever necessary, remaining strictly, and non partisan social organisation.”

Yeti was known as the organisation of the royalist in the past and many ordinary Nepalese living in the United Kingdom did not like to join the association, it is said. However, in the recent days, the membership of Yeti has grown up significantly.  

Chairman Dhakal said the most important agenda is to expand the activities of Yeti to other parts of the United Kingdom and make it the social organisations of all Nepalese.

There are over 60 organisations of Nepalese in various parts of the United Kingdom and they are mainly political, ethnic and cultural groups. The Maoists, Nepali Congress and UML have their own political affiliated organisations and other ethnic communities are also united in their respective ethnic organisations.

Yeti  is the only social and united organisation of all the Nepalese like the Non Resident Nepalese ( NRN-UK). It is estimated that nearly 100,000 Nepalese live in the United Kingdom mainly in Reading, Aldershot, Farnborough, Plumstead, Folktone and London. Most of the Nepalese living in the United Kingdom are Ex Gurkhas,  highly skilled migrants, students and asylum seekers.