Prakash Jwala (; born 27 November 1966) is a Nepali politician currently serving as minister of physical infrastructure and transport of Government of Nepal. He also served in 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 1999 until 2008 and in the Karnali Provincial Assembly from 2018 until his expulsion in April 2021, representing the Salyan 1 constituency as a member of the

Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) (; Abbreviation, abbr. CPN (UML)) is a Communism in Nepal, communist List of political parties in Nepal, political party in Nepal. The party emerged as one of the major parties in Nepal af ...

. After his expulsion, Jwala joined the newly-formed

Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Socialist) The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Socialist) (), abbreviated as CPN (Unified Socialist) is a political party in Nepal led by former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal. As of July 2023, the party leads Socialist Front (Nepal), Socialist Front a ...

, and is running as one of its candidates for the House of Representatives in the

2022 Nepalese general election General elections were held in Nepal on 20 November 2022 to elect the 275 members of the House of Representatives (Nepal), House of Representatives. There were two ballots in the election; one to elect 165 members from single-member constituenc ...

Biography

Prakash Jwala was born on 27 November 1966 in Bangad,

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

. He holds a master's degree, and worked as a teacher prior to entering politics. In the

1994 Nepalese general election General elections were held in Nepal on 15 November 1994 to elect the House of Representatives. The election took place after the Nepali Congress government collapsed and King Birenda called new elections. The results showed that the Communist P ...

, Jwala ran for the

as a member of the

, standing in the Salyan 1 constituency. Jwala was defeated by

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 ...

candidate Rajendra Bahadur Shah, receiving 7,930 votes to Shah's 11,714. Jwala ran for the same seat in the 1999 election, defeating Shah in a rematch; Jwala received 8,208 votes, while Shah received 7,089 votes. During his tenure in parliament, Jwala held several leadership positions. During the interim legislature of 2006 and 2007, Jwala served as chairman of the Natural Resources Committee and was the led a parliamentary committee tasked with investigating the financial holdings of

King Gyanendra Gyanendra Shah (born 7 July 1947) is the final monarch of Nepal, ruled from 2001 until 2008, when the monarchy was overthrown. He briefly held the throne as a child between 1950 and 1951, when his grandfather Tribhuvan and his family fled to In ...

. He later served as chief advisor to Prime Minister

Jhala Nath Khanal Jhala Nath Khanal (, ; born 20 May 1950) is a Nepalese politician who was the 35th Prime Minister of Nepal from February 2011 to August 2011. He was previously the chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) (CPN (UML)) a ...

during the early-2010s and was a member of the CPN (UML)

politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the highest organ of the central committee in communist parties. The term is also sometimes used to refer to similar organs in socialist and Islamist parties, such as the UK Labour Party's NEC or the Poli ...

. In the 2008 election, Jwala ran as a candidate for the

1st Nepalese Constituent Assembly The first Nepalese Constituent Assembly was a unicameral body of 601 members that served from May 28, 2008, to May 28, 2012. It was formed as a result of the first Constituent Assembly election held on April 10, 2008. The Constituent Assembly ( ...

, standing in the Salyan 1 constituency. However, he was defeated by

Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) (), abbreviated CPN (Maoist Centre) or CPN (MC), is the third largest List of political parties in Nepal, political party in Nepal and a member party of Socialist Front (Nepal), Samajbadi Morcha. I ...

candidate Tek Bahadur Basnet, receiving 9,487 votes to Basnet's 27,421. Jwala was elected to the

2nd Nepalese Constituent Assembly The Second Constituent Assembly of Nepal, later converted to the Legislature Parliament (), was a unicameral legislature of Nepal. It was elected in the 2013 Constituent Assembly elections after the failure of the first Constituent Assembly (CA ...

for the Salyan 2 constituency following the 2013 election. Jwala received 14,829 votes, while his two opponents, Dhrub Raj Puri of the Nepali Congress and Bhim Prakash Sharma of the Maoists, received 10,138 and 9,607 votes, respectively. After receiving assurances from party leaders, Jwala successfully ran for the newly-formed Karnali Provincial Assembly 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 in the Salyan 1(B) constituency. Following the election and the formation of a

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

between the CPN (UML) and the Maoists, Jwala was appointed the Minister of Finance of

Karnali Province Karnali Province () is one of the seven federal provinces of Nepal formed by the new constitution, which was adopted on 20 September 2015. The total area of the province is , making it the largest province in Nepal with 18.97% of the country's ...

; in this role, he was responsible for overseeing the provincial budget. In 2018, Jwala announced he would run to be the assembly leader of the CPN (UML), but later withdrew his candidacy in favor of Yam Lal Kandel. Jwala's proposed budget for 2020, which would increase spending by allocating funds towards large infrastructure projects and famine and disease prevention, was heavily criticized by other members of the government, who accused Jwala of fiscal malpractice by "distributing government funds as the current fiscal year approached its end" and urged him to resign. Jwala served as minister until 5 April 2021, resigning after the collapse of the coalition government. On 16 April 2021, the CPN (UML) initiated a

vote of no confidence A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fi ...

against the Maoist-led government of Mahendra Bahadur Shahi, the chief minister of Karnali Province. Despite the vote being whipped, Jwala and three other CPN (UML) members

crossed the floor In some parliamentary systems (e.g., in Canada and the United Kingdom), politicians are said to cross the floor if they formally change their political affiliation to a political party different from the one they were initially elected under. I ...

and supported the Shahi government. The following week, all four were expelled from both the party and the assembly. Later in 2021, Jwala joined the newly-formed

, becoming the party's deputy secretary general and the leader of the party in Karnali Province. In the

, Jwala ran for the House of Representatives, standing in the Salyan 1 constituency as a member of the CPN (Unified Socialist). He defeated Rajendra Bir Rai of the CPN (UML). Jwala received 35,700 votes, while Rai received 19,789 votes. In his role as his party's deputy secretary general, Jwala co-wrote the party's manifesto for the 2022 election; in it, Jwala announced plans to expand Nepal's highway infrastructure, create a net-surplus of food, and incentivize rural development.

Balkumari Incident

On 29 December 2023, two protestor died during the demonstration by Korean language test candidates. A high level probe commission, formed by the government under the former judge Shekhar Prasad Poudel, has convicted the minister Jwala for the incident.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jwala, Prakash 1966 births People from Salyan District, Nepal Living people 20th-century Nepalese educators 20th-century Nepalese politicians Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) politicians Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Socialist) politicians Provincial cabinet ministers of Nepal Members of the 2nd Nepalese Constituent Assembly Nepal MPs 1999–2002 Members of the Provincial Assembly of Karnali Province Nepal MPs 2022–present

Biography

Balkumari Incident

See also

References