Prachanda makes hat-trick as PM

Kathmandu, Dec 25: With the backing of 169 Members of the House of Representatives (HoR), CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ has been appointed the Prime Minister of Nepal for the third time.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari appointed Prachanda as the PM in accordance with the Article 76 (2) of the Constitution of Nepal on Sunday.

Though the Nepali Congress and CPN (Maoist Centre) and some other parties had forged electoral alliance, the CPN (Maoist Centre) walked out of the alliance at the last moment and joined hands with CPN (UML) and other political parties for becoming the PM.

Prior to this, Prachanda served as the country’s PM in 2065 BS after the first Constituency Assembly (CA) while he became the PM for the second time with the support from the Nepali Congress (NC) in 2073 BS. 

For his premiership, Prachanda has gotten support from the CPN (UML), Rastriya Swatantra Party Nepal, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Janamat Party, Nagarik Unmukti Party and Janata Samajwadi Party, and three independent Members of the HoR.

Earlier today, a meeting of the top leaders of the CPN (UML), CPN (Maoist Centre), Rastriya Swatantra Party Nepal, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Janamat Party, Nagarik Unmukti Party and Janata Samajwadi Party held at UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli’s residence in Balkot had decided to name Prachanda as the new PM. 

Born to a family of Mukti Ram and Bhawani at Dhikurpokhari of Kaski district in 2011 BS, the leader obtained his early education at Dhikurpokhari itself. Later, the Dahal family migrated to Chitwan from Kaski. 

Prachanda, who married to Sita Poudel in 2026 BS, had four children and of them a daughter and a son passed away some years ago. 

Passing SLC from Narayani Bidhya Mandir Secondary School in 2026 BS, he passed I.SC from Patan Multiple Campus and obtained Bachelors’ Degree in Agriculture from Rampur Agriculture Campus in 2033 BS. PM Prachanda is also an MPA graduate.

Professionally, he taught at Narayani Bidhya Mandir in Shivanagar, Danda Secondary School in Nawalparasi and Bhimodaya Secondary School in Arughat, Gorkha. 

For his political journey, he began politics in 2028 BS after getting membership from Pushpalal faction and also formed a Marxist Study Group in 2031 BS by uniting with Ram Bahadur Thapa, Mitra Dawadi, Khem Bhandari and Pushpa Bhurtel. 

Prachanda went underground in 2038 BS and that continued till 2063 BS, when he joined the peaceful politics.

He was the party’s whole-timer since 2035 BS and was elected the Chitwan district committee member of the party.   

In 2038 BS, he was elected the party’s regional bureau member and general secretary of All Nepal youth Association and was elected the Chairman of youth association in 2040 BS.

Prachanda was elected the central committee member of CPN (Mashal) in 2041 BS from the party’s fifth general convention and party’s politburo member in 2042 BS, general secretary in 2046 BS and he became the general secretary of CPN (Ekata Kendra) in 2048 BS. 

But the party was renamed as the CPN (Maoist) in 2051 BS and he became the party’s powerful general secretary and led the people’s war in 2052 BS.

In 2057 BS, he was elected the party’s Chairman from the Second Conference. Since then, he is the party’s chairman continuously. 

Likewise, he was named the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)’s supreme commander in 2058 BS.

The PM has penned several articles, books and other creations as well.   

In the first CA, he was elected from Kathmandu-10 and Rolpa-2, in the next CA from Siraha-5 while in the general elections taken place in 2074 BS, Dahal was elected from Chitwan-3 as a candidate of the left alliance.

In the recently-held general elections, he was elected from Gorkha-2 by getting 26,109 votes.

As the five-party alliance failed to forge consensus on the leadership of the new government, Prachanda reached at the helm of the power from today itself by garnering support chiefly from the CPN (UML) and several other parties and three independent MPs.(RSS)