Nepali Congress general secretary Dr Ram Baran Yadav, a doctor-turned-politician, was elected the first President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.
Dr Yadav, an Indian-origin Nepali citizen from Janakpurdham, the birth place of Sita in the Ramayana, in Dhanusha district, was elected to the country’s coveted post of “Head of the State” by securing 308 votes out of a total of 590 votes.
Ram Raja Prasad Singh, the candidate proposed by the CPN-Maoist, got 282 votes.
The newly-elected President and the Vice-President Parmananda Jha will take the oath of office and secrecy on Wednesday.
Dr Yadav, a peasant’s son from a middle-class family, made history by becoming the first person outside the royal family by becoming the Head of State, breaking the 240-year-old tradition that reserved the coveted title to the eldest son of the Shah Dynasty.
Born on September 4, 1948, in Safai VDC of Dhanusha district in the Terai southern plains of Nepal, Dr Yadav is the fourth son of Dhan Yadav and Ram Rati Yadav.
He completed his initial education in Dhanusha district and then came to Kathmandu for higher studies. As he was keen on studying medicine, he went to Kolkata and got admission in Calcutta Medical College from where he received his MBBS degree and became a practicing doctor. Later, he acquired his MD degree from Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research at Chandigarh in 1983.
A well-known doctor, who is very respected in the medical fraternity, Dr Yadav later became the private physician of late Nepali Congress leader B.P. Koirala.
Coincidently, Yadav has been elected to the post on the day the nation marks the 26th death anniversary of late former Prime Minister B.P. Koirala.
Yadav had started his political career during his student life in
1961, immediately after the late King Mahendra seized absolute powers by dismissing the first democratically elected government of Nepal led by B.P. Koirala.
He remained close to the Koirala family and the Nepali Congress and was appointed general secretary of the party by the Prime Minister and Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala last year. He has served as minister for health twice.
Despite being a Madhes-origin leader, Yadav stood against the demand put forward by the newly established Madhes-based parties for ‘one Madhes one province’ saying it would weaken national sovereignty and integrity.
