Radha Krishna Mainali

Who is Radha Krishna Mainali?

Radha Krishna Mainali is a Nepalese politician. In the early 1970s he was one of the radical communists who led the Jhapa rebellion, inspired by the Naxalite movement in India.

R.K. Mainali was imprisoned in 1973, and was not released until 1986. After his release he argued that the communists should formed broadbased movements for democratic change. By this time he was a leading member of the Communist Party of Nepal. He was a prominent leader of the 1990 Jana Andolan as the Acting Chairman of the United Left Front, and was one of four Jana Andolan leaders to appear on national TV on April 8, 1990 to declare that the movement for democracy had been victorious.

He later became a leading figure in the Communist Party of Nepal. R.K. Mainali contested the Jhapa-5 constituency in the 1994 parliamentary election. He won the seat with 16,361 votes, defeating the Nepali Congress candidate Surya Narayan Tajpuriya. After the election he became Minister for Agriculture, Land Reforms and Management in the CPN minority government headed by Man Mohan Adhikari. Mainali was Minister of Health in the coalition government led by Lokendra Bahadur Chand between March 12, 1997, and October 6, 1997.