Pushpa Kamal Dahal

Pushpa Kamal Dahal (2009)

Prachanda at a speech in Pokhara

Pushpa Kamal Dahal ( Nepali पुष्पकमल दाहाल * December 11, 1954 ), called Prachanda ( प्रचण्ड = "the combative "), is the chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and was the commander of the Maoist rebels in Nepal . He was Prime Minister of Nepal from August 2016 to June 2017 , an office he held from August 2008 to May 2009.

Life

Prachanda was born the oldest of eight children in a mountain village near the city of Pokhara in central Nepal. He studied agricultural science and in 1971 became a member of the Communist Party of Nepal, which in the following period split up into various independent parties several times. From 1996 he was the leader of the armed rebel uprising against feudal institutions and against the monarchy in Nepal. Since the beginning of the “People's War” he lived underground with around 10,000 fighters.

In 2006, he no longer declared communist rule to be the goal and signed an agreement with the then Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to end the 12-year civil war; In return, the ruling parties agreed to accept one of the main demands of the Maoists, the abolition of the monarchy.

On August 15, 2008, Dahal was elected Prime Minister of Nepal; while he prevailed against his only competitor Sher Bahadur Deuba from the Congress Party . After Dahal suffered a defeat in a power struggle with the Nepalese military leadership, he announced his resignation on May 4, 2009. Dahal had fired army chief Rookmangud Katawal the day before because the army refused to accept former Maoist guerrillas into their ranks. This decision led to the resignation of several parties from the government of Nepal, whereupon President Ram Baran Yadav revoked the dismissal of Katawal. The successor to Dahal, who subsequently resigned, was the leader of the Marxist-Leninists, Madhav Kumar Nepal .

On August 3, 2016, Dahal was elected Prime Minister for the second time with 363 of the 573 votes in parliament, which he held until June 2017.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cf. Prachanda - from rebel leader to premier ( Memento from August 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) at tagesschau.de, August 15, 2008
2. ↑ Tagesschau : Serious setback for democracy in Nepal ( Memento from May 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) from May 4, 2009.
3. ↑ Nepal: Maoist appointed new prime minister. Spiegel Online , August 3, 2016, accessed August 3, 2016 . 
4. ↑ KP Sharma Oli To Be Sworn In As Nepal Prime Minister Today. In: Outlook India. February 15, 2018, accessed September 16, 2018 . 

Web links

Commons : Pushpa Kamal Dahal  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Biographical presentation in Der STANDARD from April 21, 2006
• BBC: Maoist leader becomes Nepalese PM (English)