Nanda Bahadur Pun elected Vice President

Nanda Bahadur Pun is elected the second Vice President of the federal democratic republic of Nepal. 

Pun secured a majority 325 votes of the total 547 votes cast in the election held at the Legislature-Parliament on Saturday. His contender Amiya Yadav of Nepali Congress received 212 votes. 10 votes were annulled. 

Speaker Onsari Gharti announced the results at the Legislature-Parliament meeting held at 5 pm. 

Pun was nominated as the Vice Presidential candidate by his party UCPN (Maoist) and was supported by parties in the ruling coalition including CPN (UML), Rastriya Prajatantra Party (Nepal) and other small parties. 

Nanda Bahadur Pun was born in 1965 in Bhanbhane, Rangsi VDC-9 of Rolpa to Ramsur and Manasara Pun. 

Pun was drawn to communist ideology early on during his school years and became active in student politics. He became a member of the first district committee of the CPN (Unity Centre) and was the first district president when Unity Centre’s armed youth wing Young Communist League (YCL) was formed after 1990.

When the CPN (Unity Centre) was divided in 1994, Pun chose the faction that would later transform into the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).

Eventually, the YCL was to turn into Ladaku Dal and then People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

An attack by Ladaku Dal at the police station in Holeri, Dang in February 1996 launched the ‘People’s War’. Pun was an assistant commander of the attack.

Pun became the commander of the first PLA battalion when PLA it was formed in 2001. Later he became the PLA chief and led the major attacks during the Maoist insurgency.

He constantly came to the limelight during the Maoist insurgency for leading major attacks as the PLA chief. However, he mostly remained in the shadows after the Maoist entered peace process in 2006. 

He contested for Constituent Assembly (CA) member during the second CA elections in 2013 from Kathmandu constituency-4. He was defeated by Nepali Congress leader Gagan Thapa.