Nepal gets Indian-origin leader as first President

Kathmandu, July 21: Nepal's first president Ram Baran Yadav, a doctor-turned-politician who had most of his education in India, faces the tough task of overseeing the drafting of a new Constitution amid bitter political acrimony and fears of the country slipping back to insurgency with the Maoists being effectively sidelined.

Yadav, a relatively unknown figure outside Nepal, was a last-minute choice of the major parties to oppose the Maoist candidate and Madhesi leader Ramraja Prasad Singh.

In the run-off polls, the veteran leader trounced Singh by 26 votes, securing the support of 308 lawmakers compared to 282 for the Maoist nominee who was the favourite till Sunday. The run-off was necessitated as Yadav fell 15 short of the magic figure of 298 in the first round held last week.

The 60-year-old has learnt the fine art of politics from Nepali Congress patriarch B P Koirala and Ganesh Man Singh as also Madhesi leader Ramnarayan Mishra.

Also hailing from the Indian-origin Madhesi community, Yadav received his MBBS degree from Kolkata and MD from PGIMER, Chandigarh, spending about 11 years studying in India.

After practising medicine for eight years, Yadav joined Nepali Congress after the 1980 referendum held to choose between party-less Panchayat system and multiparty system.

Yadav, a three-time MP from Dhanusha, entered Parliament as an NC candidate for the first time in 1991. He was re-elected in 1999 and elected to the Constituent Assembly in the landmark polls on April 10 this year, which saw the Maoists emerging as the single largest party.

A farmer's son who made a remarkable journey to occupy the highest post in the new-born republic that abolished the 240-year-old monarchy, Yadav said he wants to take the peace process to its logical end and maintain friendly ties with both India and China.

The new President will replace the deposed King Gyanendra as the head of the state, performing the ceremonial duties, which were earlier the sole domain of the monarch.

Maoists had won 220 seats in the Constituent Assembly elections held on April 10 while the NC and the Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist Leninist followed with 110 and 103 seats, respectively.

Since the abolition of the monarchy, the main political parties in Nepal have been unable to form a new government because of serious differences on issues like who should be the president and prime minister.

The Maoists, who were eyeing both the posts, have announced that they will not join the government if their candidate fails to get elected to the post of president.

"We will sit in the opposition if Nepali Congress candidate backed by CPN-UML gets elected," said Maoist leader Dev Gurung.

Courtesy: expressindia.com