Sher Bahadur Deuba

Sher Bahadur Deuba (शेरबहादुर देउवा, ; born 13 June 1946) is a Nepali politician and former prime minister of Nepal and the current leader of the Opposition.

Deuba was born on 13 June 1946 in Ashigram, a remote village in Dadeldhura district of far-western Nepal (present-day Ganyapdhura Rural Municipality, Sudurpashchim Province).

He received his primary education from Asigram Primary School and secondary education from Mahendra Higher Sec. School and Sitaram Higher Secondary School in Doti.

After completing SLC, Deuba was enrolled in the Tri-Chandra College for higher education.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Deuba was jailed intermittently for nine years for working against the Panchayat system.

From 1971 to 1980, he served as president of the student wing.

He registered at the London School of Economics (LSE) in 1989, under the "research fee" category which allowed him "to use the LSE library, and have a professor assigned for general guidance, but not take classes".

Deuba, however, never published any work at the LSE.

Deuba was in London when the 1990 revolution broke out where he campaigned for the revolution.

The Socialist International had cancelled his stipend; subsequently, he had to depend on a loan given by Nepalis, worked for the BBC Nepali irregularly, and temporarily lived at a restaurant.

He left the school in 1990.

He began his political career as a student and alongside others founded the Nepal Student Union, a student wing of the Nepali Congress.

Deuba was an active campaigner during the 1990 revolution which dissolved the partyless Panchayat system and ushered in the beginning of multiparty democracy.

In the next year's general elections, he was elected to the House of Representatives from Dadeldhura 1.

He served as the Minister of Home Affairs in the cabinet of Girija Prasad Koirala.

He completed his higher education at Tri-Chandra College In 1991, he was elected to the House of Representatives and served as the Minister of Home Affairs in the cabinet led by Girija Prasad Koirala.

After Koirala dissolved the parliament and his government was defeated in the 1994 mid-term elections, Deuba was elected parliamentary party leader of the Nepali Congress.

Deuba has served five terms as prime minister (1995–1997, 2001–2002, 2004–2005, 2017–2018 and 2021–2022) and is the Member of Parliament for the parliamentary constituency of Dadeldhura 1.

Born and raised in Ashigram, a remote village in Dadeldhura, Deuba completed his primary education there and his secondary education in Doti.

Deuba became prime minister after Manmohan Adhikari tried to dissolve the parliament for the second time in two years in 1995.

He oversaw the signature of the Mahakali treaty with India during his first term.

After Manmohan Adhikari tried to dissolve the parliament again in 1995 which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, Deuba was appointed prime minister in 1995 and led a coalition government with the Rastriya Prajatantra Party.

On 12 February 1996, he signed the Mahakali treaty with the Government of India regarding the development of the watershed of the Mahakali River.

His administration, which witnessed the beginning of the Maoist insurgency, fell in March 1997 and he was succeeded by Lokendra Bahadur Chand who led a minority coalition government.

His second premiership started in July 2001 amidst the rise of the Maoists and he later declared a state of emergency and listed the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) as a "terrorist organisation".

Following the resignation of Girija Prasad Koirala as prime minister, Deuba defeated Sushil Koirala to become the parliamentary party leader of the Nepali Congress and was appointed prime minister for a second time on 26 July 2001.

He became prime minister shortly after the royal massacre and during the heights of the Maoist insurgency, and he soon announced a ceasefire with the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).

In August 2001, he began peace talks with the Maoists, but after the Maoists pulled out of talks and attacked the army in November 2001, Deuba declared a state of emergency, and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) was listed as a "terrorist organisation".

He was dismissed by King Gyanendra in October 2002, but after a public backlash, he was reappointed prime minister in June 2004.

In early 2002, Deuba requested a dissolution of the parliament in order to hold fresh elections.

The same year, he founded the breakaway party, Nepali Congress (Democratic).

In October 2002, King Gyanendra took over the democratically elected Government led by Sher Bahadur Deuba.

After two other governments in two years, Deuba was reappointed as prime minister by King Gyanendra on 4 June 2004.

He was arrested after the 2005 coup d'état by King Gyanendra, and released in February 2006 after the Supreme Court declared his arrest unlawful.

He has also been serving as the president of the Nepali Congress since 2016.

Deuba was sworn in as prime minister for a fourth stint in June 2017, as per an agreement to form a rotational government by Congress and the CPN (Maoist Centre).

His government successfully conducted the elections of all three levels of government in different phases in 2017.

On 12 July 2021, the Supreme Court ordered the appointment of Deuba as prime minister within 28 hours, and he was appointed prime minister for a fifth term by President Bidya Devi Bhandari in accordance with Article 76(5) of the Constitution of Nepal the next day.

Deuba is married to Arzu Rana Deuba.

They have one son.