Rajendra Prasad Lingden is a Nepali politician and former

Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal The deputy prime minister of Nepal () is the deputy head of government of Nepal. The deputy prime minister is second in seniority in the Council of Ministers of Nepal. The deputy prime minister is the senior-most member of cabinet after prime min ...

. He also served as the Minister of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation. He is also the chairman of the

Rastriya Prajatantra Party The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (; ; , ()) is a monarchist, constitutional monarchist and Hindu nationalist List of political parties in Nepal, political party in Nepal. The party was formed by Panchayat (Nepal), Panchayat era Prime Minister o ...

(RPP). He served as a member of the 1st Federal Parliament of Nepal from March 2018. He was re-elected in 2022 in the 2nd Federal Parliament of Nepal.

Early life and education

Rajendra Lingden was born in Amarpur, in

Panchthar district Panthar District () is one of 14 districts of Koshi Province in the eastern hilly region of Nepal. It is a Hill district of eastern Nepal. The district covers of area. The 2011 census counted 191,817 population. Phidim is the district headquart ...

, to Dhan Kumari and Man Prasad Lingden. He married Sita Thapa, they have one daughter and two sons. Lingden was involved in politics from a young age. He has completed his master's degree from

Tribhuvan University Tribhuvan University (TU; ) is a public university located in Kirtipur, Kathmandu Valley, Kathmandu, Nepal. Established in 1959, TU is the oldest and the largest university in Nepal. It offers 1,000 undergraduate and 500 postgraduate programs a ...

. He was also nominated for the position of chairman of the District Development Committee of Jhapa during the direct rule 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 comes from Jhapa-3, constituency.

Career

Lingden was involved in RPP politics from the beginning of the party's establishment. He held several positions within the party, including General Secretary, before contesting for the position of president in 2021. On 5 December 2021, Lingden was elected Chairman of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party by defeating the incumbent chairman,

Kamal Thapa Kamal Thapa () is a Nepalese politician belonging to Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal. Thapa, has served as a Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal, Deputy Prime Minister and Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (Nepal), Federal A ...

at the party's

general convention The General Convention is the primary governing and legislative body of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. With the exception of the Bible, the ''Book of Common Prayer'', and the Constitution and Canons, it is the ultimate autho ...

. Lingden got 1,844 votes, while

got 1,617 votes. A total of 413 votes were invalidated. Stating that he would accept defeat, Thapa tweeted and congratulated Lingden on his victory. In the

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

and

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

elections, Lingden defeated former Home Minister

Krishna Prasad Sitaula Krishna Prasad Sitaula () is a Nepali politician, belonging to the Nepali Congress. He is the leader of the Nepali Congress parliamentary party in the upper house, the National Assembly (Nepal), Rastriya Sabha. Sitaula is known for playing an imp ...

. Sitaula was considered

Girija Prasad Koirala Nepal Ratna Girija Prasad Koirala ( ; 4 July 1924 – 20 March 2010), affectionately known as Girija Babu, was a Nepalese politician. He headed the Nepali Congress and served as the Prime Minister of Nepal on four occasions: from 1991 to 1994, ...

's right-hand person in bringing Maoists, UML, and other parties together, and his defeat was seen as a rebuke of 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 ...

's handling of the aftermath of the peace process. After the

's strong showing 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 ...

, where the party won 14 seats, the RPP decided to join the current coalition government under Lingden's leadership. Lingden became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation. On 25 February 2023, Lingden resigned from his posts, and the RPP quit the coalition government being in for less than 40 days.

Electoral history

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 Jhapa 3 constituency, securing 44614 (56.52%) votes. In the

, he was elected from the Jhapa 3 constituency, securing 40,662 (47.94%) votes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lingden, Rajendra Prasad Nepal MPs 2017–2022 Living people Rastriya Prajatantra Party politicians People from Panchthar District Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal politicians Tribhuvan University alumni 1965 births Nepal MPs 2022–present