Girija Prasad Koirala

Nepal Ratna Girija Prasad Koirala (गिरिजाप्रसाद कोइराला ; 4 July 1924 – 20 March 2010), affectionately known as Girija Babu, was a Nepalese politician.

Koirala was born in Saharsa, Bihar, British India, in 1924 into a Hill Brahmin family.

His father, Krishna Prasad Koirala, was a Nepali living in exile.

Koirala became involved in politics in 1947, leading the Biratnagar jute mill strike In 1948 Koirala founded the Nepal Mazdoor Congress, later known as the Nepal Trade Union Congress-Independent.

Two of his brothers were prime ministers: Matrika Prasad Koirala from 1951 to 1952 and 1953 to 1955, and Bisheshwar Prasad Koirala from 1959 until King Mahendra took over the government in December 1960.

Bisheshwar Prasad and Girija Prasad were arrested and later sent to prison.

In 1952 Koirala married Sushma Koirala, headmistress at the local school for women in Biratnagar.

Later, in 1952, he became the President of the Morang District Nepali Congress and held that office until he was arrested and imprisoned by King Mahendra following the 1960 royal coup.

Their daughter Sujata Koirala was born in 1953.

Sushma died in a kerosene stove explosion in 1967.

He along with his daughter Sujata were followers of the Indian spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba.

Koirala belonged to one of Nepal's most prominent political families.

With other leaders of the Nepali Congress Party (NCP), Girija Prasad went into exile after his release in 1967 and didn't return to Nepal until 1979.

Upon his release in 1967, Koirala, along with other leaders and workers of the party, was exiled to India until his return to Nepal in 1979.

Koirala was General Secretary of the Nepali Congress Party from 1975 to 1991.

Koirala was actively involved in the 1990 Jana Andolan which led to the abrogation of Panchayat rule and the introduction of multiparty politics into the country.

He had signed many treaties that were against nation.

He headed the Nepali Congress and served as the Prime Minister of Nepal on four occasions, including from 1991 to 1994, 1998 to 1999, 2000 to 2001, and 2006 to 2008.

In 1991 he became the first democratically elected Prime Minister since 1959, when his brother B.P. Koirala and the Nepali Congress party were swept into power in the country's first democratic election.

In Nepal's first multiparty democratic election in 1991, Koirala was elected as a member of parliament from the Morang-1 and Sunsari-5 constituencies.

The Nepali Congress won 110 of the 205 seats in the Pratinidhi Sabha (House of Representatives), the lower house of parliament.

He was subsequently elected as the leader of the Nepali Congress parliamentary party and was appointed as Prime Minister by King Birendra.

During his first term, the House of Representatives enacted legislation to liberalize education, media and health sectors in the country.

The government also founded the Purbanchal University and the B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences(BPKIHS) in the Eastern Development Region and granted licenses to the private sector to run medical and engineering colleges in various parts of the country.

The government also undertook the construction of the B.P. Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital in Bharatpur, Nepal with assistance from the government of China.

In November 1994, he called for a dissolution of parliament and general elections after a procedural defeat on the floor of the House when 36 members of parliament (MPs) of his party went against a government-sponsored vote of confidence.

This led to the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist)-led coalition coming to power in the elections that followed.

Koirala took over as Prime Minister from Surya Bahadur Thapa following the collapse of the coalition government led by Thapa.

Koirala first headed a Nepali Congress minority government until 25 December 1998, after which he headed a three-party coalition government with the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) and the Nepal Sadbhawana Party.

Koirala became Prime Minister in 2000 for his third term following the resignation of Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, under whose leadership the Nepali Congress Party had won the parliamentary election.

The party had won claiming that Krishna Prasad Bhattarai would be the Prime Minister, but Koirala led a group of dissident MPs and forced Bhattarai to resign or face a no-confidence motion.

At that time Nepal was fighting a civil war against the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).

He was the most prominent and consequential political leader from 2001 to 2008 in Nepal.

Koirala resigned in July 2001 after which the military was mobilized in the civil war for the first time, something Koirala had unsuccessfully attempted to do while in office.

He was replaced by former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who was elected by a majority of members of the Nepal

After the Loktantra Andolan and the reinstatement of the Nepal House of Representatives, Pratinidhi Sabha, on 24 April 2006, Koirala was selected to become Prime Minister by the leaders of the Seven Party Alliance.

The reinstated House of Representatives passed laws to strip the King of his powers and bring the Army under civilian control.

Following the promulgation of the interim constitution, Koirala, as the Prime Minister, became the interim head of state of Nepal.

He was the Acting Head of State of Nepal between January 2007 and July 2008 as the country transitioned from a monarchy to a republic.

Koirala, who was active in politics for over sixty years, was a pioneer of the Nepalese labour movement, having started the first political workers' movement on Nepalese soil, known as the Biratnagar jute mill strike in his hometown, Biratnagar.