Madhav Kumar Nepal is a Nepalese politician who was Prime Minister of Nepal from May 25, 2009 to February 6, 2011. Nepal announced his resignation as prime minister on June 30, 2010. He is the former Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Minister of Defence of Nepal under Man Mohan Adhikari Cabinet. He was previously the General Secretary of Communist Party of Nepal for 15 years. He is also one of the only Prime Ministers in the world whose name features the name of his country, i.e., Nepal. He is the senior leader of Nepal Communist Party
Personal life
Madhav Kumar Nepal was born into Brahmin family to Mangal Kumar Upadhyaya and Durgadevi Upadhaya. He graduated in Commerce from Tribhuvan University in 1973 and worked in banking and civil service before turning to full-time politics. He has two brothers, Binod Kumar Upadhyaya and Saroj Kumar Upadhyaya and three sisters, Kalika Bhandari, Indira Neupane and Basudha Pokharel. He is married to Gayatri Acharya. He has a son and a daughter, Saurav and Suman Nepal.
Nepal joined the communist movement in 1969. In the underground struggle, he used party names such as 'Subodh', 'Sunil', 'Ranjan' and 'Bibek'. In 1971 he became a district committee member of the Nepal Revolutionary Organisation. At a conference held in Biratnagar June 7–8, 1975, M.K. Nepal was elected as a bureau member of the All Nepal Communist Revolutionary Coordination Committee. When the ANCRCC founded the Communist Party of Nepal in 1978, M.K. Nepal was elected a politburo member of the new party.
Statesman
He was the Deputy Prime Minister in the Nepalese government during the CPN minority government in 1994-1995 as well as the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly during the 1990s. He argued for the Nepal Civil War to be solved through talks and did not believe that mobilization of the army was the solution and as the leader of CPN UML, was one of the three key Nepali leaders, the other two being Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and Maoist Rebel leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda', crucial in bringing the Maoists into the peace process and signing the 12 point peace accords that ended the decade long Nepal Civil war. Nepal was arrested in 2001 during a crackdown on anti-government protest. Following the palace massacre he called for Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to step down, though later joined forces with him to launch a campaign against King Gyanendra's assumption of executive powers. On 12 April 2008, Nepal resigned as General Secretary of the CPN, after having lost the Kathmandu-2 seat to Maoist candidate Jhakku Prasad Subedi in the 2008 Constituent Assembly election. Subedi was a comparatively obscure candidate. Nepal was also defeated in Rautahat-6 constituency by CPN candidate Devendra Patel. He later won both the seats in the second Constituent Assembly election in 2013, defeating his opponent in Kathmandu -2, Nepali Congress candidate Deepak Kuikel by a margin of over 10,000 votes. He defeated the same opponent in Kathmandu-2, again in the 2017 Nepal General Election by a margin of 14000 votes, earning nearly twice the number of votes as his opponent, Deepak Kuikel. In June 2008, the CPN proposed that M. K. Nepal become the country's first President, following the declaration of a republic. In the 2017 General election under the newly written constitution, he is contesting from Kathmandu-2 only because the new constitution no longer allows candidates to be candidates from multiple constituencies. He is running against Nepali Congress candidate Deepak Kuikel and Bibeksheel Sajha Party candidate Suryaraj Sharma.
Prime minister
He became Prime Minister of Nepal on 25 May 2009 after his predecessor Prachanda resigned over a conflict with the president over the dismissal of the army's chief of staff. Prime Minister Nepal resigned on June 30, 2010 in an effort to help the government move past its deadlock and to pave the way for a national consensus government, as demanded by the opposition.
