GPK Timeline

GPK Timeline

-         Born in July 1924 in Tedi of Saharsha district in Bihar, India
- Returned to Nepal at five years of age in 1930
- Gave up communist ideology in 1945
- Started working at Biratnagar Jute Mills in 1947
- Founded Nepal Majdoor Congress, that later became Nepal Trade Union Congress, in 1948
- Took part in the armed rebellion against the Rana regime waged by Nepali Congress as a political commissar in 1951
- Married Sushma Upadhyaya in 1952 and later became Morang President of Nepali Congress in 1952
- Became father of a girl, Sujata, in 1954
- Arrested and imprisoned by King Mahendra following a failed armed revolt against the 1960 royal coup.
- Lost wife Sushma, who died while trying to douse a fire erupting from a refrigerator, in 1967
- Released from jail in 1967 and sent to exile
- Masterminded hijacking of a Royal Nepal Airlines plane coming to Kathmandu from Biratnagar carrying Indian rupees three million on June 10, 1973
- Became general secretary of Nepali Congress in 1975
- Took part in the 1990 movement as general secretary of Nepali Congress
- Became only the second democratically-elected prime minister of Nepal on May 26, 1991 (after his elder brother Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala in 1959), following the defeat of the incumbent prime minister and acting Nepali Congress President Krishna Prasad Bhattarai in the general elections
- Dissolved parliament that had Nepali Congress majority and declared general elections on November 30, 1994 after failing to pass motion of thanking the king for presenting the government´s policy and program
- Becomes President of Nepali Congress in 1994
- Became prime minister for the second time heading a Nepali Congress minority government on April 25, 1998 which was joined by UML and Nepal Sadbhavana Party on December 25, 1998
- Became prime minister for the third time after resignation of Krishna Prasad Bhattarai on March 22, 2001 and was at the office during the royal massacre of June 1, 2001
- Resigned as prime minister on July 26, 2001 in the heat of Maoist insurgency to make way for his protégé Sher Bahadur Deuba
- Played pivotal role in reaching out to the Maoists that culminated in the signing of the 12-point agreement between the seven political parties with the Maoist rebels in New Delhi, India in November 2005
- Became prime minister for the fourth time on April 25, 2006 after the re-instatement of the parliament following the April uprising
- Signed the peace accord with the Maoists on November 21, 2006 from the government´s side
- Became head of the state on Jan 15, 2007 after promulgation of the interim constitution
- Reelected prime minister on April 1, 2007 to head a new government that included the Maoists apart from the mainstream political parties
- Conducted the Constituent Assembly elections on April 10, 2008 that Maoists won and ultimately abolished the 240-year-old monarchy on May 28, 2008
- Resigned on June 26, 2008 but the resignation is not accepted in the absence of a president. Resigned again on July 23, 2008 to the first president of Nepal, Ram Baran Yadav, who was sworn in on the same day, paving way for Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal to become prime minister
- Rallied political parties to form a government under Madhav Kumar Nepal on May 24, 2009 after resignation of the Maoists
- Passed away at 12:10 pm on March 20, 2010 due to chronic respiratory problems