Pradeep Giri (6 November 1945 – 20 August 2022) was a Nepali politician from

Siraha district Siraha District (; ), a district in Madhesh Province, is one of the List of districts of Nepal, seventy-seven districts of Nepal. It is situated in the Terai#Outer Terai, Terai belt of Nepal. The district, with Siraha as its district headquarters ...

a member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

from the

Nepali Congress The Nepali Congress ( ; Abbreviation, abbr. NC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a Social democracy, social democratic List of political parties in Nepal, political party in Nepal and the largest party in the country ...

. He was also part of the party's central committee.

Personal life

Giri was born in Bastipur,

Siraha Siraha ( Nepali: , ) is the headquarters and municipality of Siraha District, a part of Madhesh Province, Nepal. Siraha had a population of 28,442 according to the census of 2011. and a population of 82,531 as of 2015. The current population of Si ...

. He came from a political family. Giri's father Mitra Lal Giri was a prominent Congress leader, and uncle

Tulsi Giri Tulsi Giri (; 26 September 1926 – 18 December 2018) was the Prime Minister of Nepal from 1975 to 1977, and chairman of the Council of Ministers (a ''de facto'' Prime Ministerial position) in 1963, and again in 1964 and 1965. He was born in Sir ...

was

leader who later joined

Panchayat system Panchayat ( Nepali: पञ्चायत) was a political system in Nepal from 1961 to 1990. It banned political parties and placed all governmental power, including power over the Council of Ministers and Federal Parliament, under the sole aut ...

and became

prime minister of Nepal The prime minister of Nepal (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of government of Nepal. The prime minister leads the Council of Ministers of Nepal, Council of Ministers and holds the chief executive authority in the country. They must maintain ...

Political career

Pradip Giri was as famous at the national level as he was at the local level. During the

Madhes movement Madhesh Movement ( Nepali: मधेस आन्दोलन) was a political movement launched by various political parties, especially those based in Madhes, for equal rights, dignity and identity of Madhesis Tharus, Muslims and Janjati gro ...

, his role was in favor of the agitators. Giri was known as a socialist thinker and intellectual leader in the country and abroad along with Congress politics. Giri was elected as a member of the House of Representatives from Siraha Constituency No. 5 in the 2017 general election. He became a proportional member from the Congress in the first and second Constituent Assembly elections. He didn't sign the Constitution of Nepal 2072 citing it was incomplete and did not fulfil the demand of all citizens. Giri said, "It is true that I did not sign the constitution passed ignoring the demands of the Madhesi people. I have boycotted the parliament by raising the demand of Madhesis, the Madhesi people have understood this." He was serving as the member of the

1st Federal Parliament of Nepal The First Federal Parliament of Nepal, consisting of the House of Representatives and the National Assembly, was elected via the 2017 legislative, provincial and local elections. 165 members were elected via first-past-the-post system and 110 t ...

. In the

2017 Nepalese general election General elections were held in Nepal in two phases on 26 November and 7 December 2017 to elect the 275 members of the fifth House of Representatives, the lower house of the Federal Parliament of Nepal. The election was held alongside the first ...

, he was elected from the Siraha 1 constituency, securing 23,951(39.82%) votes. He was influenced by the works of

B. R. Ambedkar Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (Bhīmrāo Rāmjī Āmbēḍkar; 14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956) was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and political leader who chaired the committee that drafted the Constitution of India based on t ...

, the constitution maker of India. Throughout his life, he advocated for the rights of Dalits, Madhesis, Janajatis, Adivasis, women, and LGBTQIA+ communities.

Electoral history

2017 legislative elections

Death

He died on 20 August 2022, at the age of 76, Nepal Mediciti Hospital in Lalitpur at around 9:30 pm on Saturday. He was suffering from cancer, and pneumonia coupled with it had led to multi-organ failure at the last stage. He always believed in ethical politics.

References