PROFILE: Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal

Kathmandu - Pushpa Kamal Dahal, popularly known as Prachanda, a former guerrilla leader, was voted Friday as Nepal's new prime minister....

Kathmandu - Pushpa Kamal Dahal, popularly known as Prachanda, a former guerrilla leader, was voted Friday as Nepal's new prime minister. The chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) led the decade-long Maoist insurgency that killed more than 13,000 people before joing the mainstream government. Born on December 11, 1954, in a modest but high caste family in western Nepal, Prachanda grew up in Chitwan district and studied agriculture at university. In 1989, he became general secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal (Mashal), which later became the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). 

 After the restoration of democracy in 1990, Prachanda, which means 'the fierce one,' was a little-known figure, though he controlled the clandestine wing of the Maoist party while the parliamentary representation in the United People's Front was headed by Babu Ram Bhattarai. On February 4, 1996, Bhattarai gave the government a 40-point list of demands and started the Maoist insurgency. Known for his strong leadership Prachanda became the military commander of the guerilla fighters and Bhattarai his deputy. 

Ever since his political career began, Prachanda had been fiercely opposed to the monarchy in Nepal terming it as fuedal and corrupt. Despite his growing fame brought on by the successes of the rebel fighting force, Prachanda himself remained aloof from the public and rarely gave interviews during the communist insurgency. He finally appeared in public following the overthrow of King Gyanendra's government in April 2006. He was elected a member of the country's powerful constituent assembly from Kathmandu and Rolpa districts in April 2008 where his winning margin was nearly double his closest rivals.

He later resigned from his Rolpa seat. But the Maoists and Prachanda have found themselves in uncharted territory since they joined the mainstream. Relations with their allies during the movement that toppled Gyanendra's government is now in tatters and the Maoists themselves have been bogged down in bureaucracy and technical details of the politics which they sought to replace during their war. Prachanda's dreams of becoming the first president of the country were also shattered earlier this year after Nepali Congress refused to back him after the country abolished monarchy. Prachanda is married to Sita Paudel and has three daughters and a son.