Yogesh Bhattarai
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Yogesh Bhattarai () is a Nepali politician currently serving as a member of Parliament 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
Taplejung Taplejung District ( ) is one of List of districts of Nepal, seventy-seven districts of Nepal and one of the Districts of Province No. 1, 14 districts of Koshi Province. It is located deep in the Himalayas in Eastern Nepal with Tibet, བོད ...
constituency since 2017. Bhattarai is currently in his second term as secretary of CPN-UML. He has previously also served as Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation. Bhattarai was born in 1966 in Taplejung, Nepal. He has a master's degree in Sociology and Anthropology 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 ...
, Nepal. He joined the then Nepal Community Party (Unified Marxist and Leninist) as Member in 1985. Elected in 1995 as President of the All Nepal National Free Student Union (ANNFSU), he served as Secretary of CPN-UML, Head of the Publicity Department, and Member of the Party's Standing Committee from 2015 to 2018. He was elected as a Member of the Federal Parliament of Nepal and a Standing Committee Member of NCP in 2017 and 2019 respectively. He has been serving as Minister of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation since 31 July 2019. In April 2015, Bhattarai criticised the then
UCPN (Maoist) The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) (), abbreviated CPN (Maoist Centre) or CPN (MC), is the third largest political party in Nepal and a member party of Samajbadi Morcha. It was founded in 1994 after breaking away from the Communi ...
chairman
Pushpa Kamal Dahal Pushpa Kamal Dahal (; born Ghanashyam Dahal, 11 December 1954), alias ''Prachanda'' (, , "fierce"), is a Nepalese politician, currently serving as the Leader of the Opposition, since July 2024. He has served as the Prime Minister of Nepal o ...
, while in February 2017, he urged then Prime Minister Dahal to step down over his failure in conducting the local elections. After the merger of CPN-UML and
UCPN (Maoist) The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) (), abbreviated CPN (Maoist Centre) or CPN (MC), is the third largest political party in Nepal and a member party of Samajbadi Morcha. It was founded in 1994 after breaking away from the Communi ...
, he called on both
KP Oli Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli (; born 22 February 1952), commonly known as K. P. Sharma Oli or simply K. P. Oli (English pronunciation: , ), is a Nepalese politician who is serving as the prime minister of Nepal since 15 July 2024. Chairman of the ...
and
Pushpa Kamal Dahal Pushpa Kamal Dahal (; born Ghanashyam Dahal, 11 December 1954), alias ''Prachanda'' (, , "fierce"), is a Nepalese politician, currently serving as the Leader of the Opposition, since July 2024. He has served as the Prime Minister of Nepal o ...
to retire from active politics.


Political Life

He was elected as campus chairman of the Mahendra Multiple campus Free Student Union. He became president of All Nepal National Free Students Union, the student wing of CPN-UML in 1995. During the split of CPN-UML in 1998, he was part of the breakaway faction but rejoined the mother party. He became a central committee member of CPN-UML in 2009 after the eighth general convention and party secretary after the ninth general convention in 2014. He is currently secretary of
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 ...
. Yogesh Bhattarai, Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Government of Nepal, was born in 1966 in Taplejung, Nepal. He has a master's degree in Sociology and Anthropology 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 ...
, Nepal. He joined the then Nepal Community Party (Unified Marxist and Leninist) as Member in 1985. Elected in 1995 as President of the All Nepal National Free Student Union (ANNFSU), he served as Secretary of CPN UML, Head of the Publicity Department, and Member of the Party's Standing Committee from 2015 to 2018. He was elected as a Member of the Federal Parliament of Nepal and a Standing Committee Member of NCP in 2017 and 2019 respectively. He has been serving as Minister of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation since 31 July 2019. In April 2015, Bhattarai criticised the then
UCPN (Maoist) The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) (), abbreviated CPN (Maoist Centre) or CPN (MC), is the third largest political party in Nepal and a member party of Samajbadi Morcha. It was founded in 1994 after breaking away from the Communi ...
chairman
Pushpa Kamal Dahal Pushpa Kamal Dahal (; born Ghanashyam Dahal, 11 December 1954), alias ''Prachanda'' (, , "fierce"), is a Nepalese politician, currently serving as the Leader of the Opposition, since July 2024. He has served as the Prime Minister of Nepal o ...
, while in February 2017, he urged then Prime Minister Dahal to step down due to failure in conducting the local elections. After the merger of CPN-UML and
UCPN (Maoist) The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) (), abbreviated CPN (Maoist Centre) or CPN (MC), is the third largest political party in Nepal and a member party of Samajbadi Morcha. It was founded in 1994 after breaking away from the Communi ...
, he called on both
KP Oli Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli (; born 22 February 1952), commonly known as K. P. Sharma Oli or simply K. P. Oli (English pronunciation: , ), is a Nepalese politician who is serving as the prime minister of Nepal since 15 July 2024. Chairman of the ...
and
Pushpa Kamal Dahal Pushpa Kamal Dahal (; born Ghanashyam Dahal, 11 December 1954), alias ''Prachanda'' (, , "fierce"), is a Nepalese politician, currently serving as the Leader of the Opposition, since July 2024. He has served as the Prime Minister of Nepal o ...
to retire from active politics.


Controversy


Buddha Air flight delay incident

In September 2019, a video of passengers protesting inside an airplane went viral, after Yogesh Bhattarai held the scheduled passenger flight from departing at
Nepalgunj Airport Nepalgunj Airport is a domestic airport serving Nepalgunj, in Banke District, a district in Lumbini Province in Nepal. There are plans by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal to promote the airport to an international airport and establishing ...
. Bhattarai, the then minister of culture, tourism and civil aviation arrived the airport late after attending Dolphin Festival at
Tikapur Tikapur () is a Municipality in Kailali District in Sudurpashchim Province of Nepal that was established in January 1997. Tikapur Municipality was further expanded on 10 March 2017 through merger with the two former Village development committee ...
,
Kailali Kailali District (), a part of Sudurpashchim Province in Terai plain, is one of the 77 districts of Nepal. The district, with Dhangadhi as its district headquarters, covers an area of and has a population of 911,155 (2021 census) and (775,709 in ...
and was faced with furious passengers, dissatisfied with the abuse of power. "You are the Minister for Culture and you don't have any civility," a passenger said, as heard in the video. Subsequently, the
Buddha Air Buddha Air Pvt. Ltd () is an airline based in Lalitpur, Nepal. It operates domestic flights within Nepal as well as international services to Varanasi, India, from its main base in Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu.Flight International ...
flight was delayed by at least 26 minutes. The protestors were initially claiming that Bhattarai had boarded the flight nearly an hour late but the civil aviation officials at Nepalgunj airport later verified that the minister had caused the delay of only 15 minutes. The scheduled quick turn around flight of
Buddha Air Buddha Air Pvt. Ltd () is an airline based in Lalitpur, Nepal. It operates domestic flights within Nepal as well as international services to Varanasi, India, from its main base in Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu.Flight International ...
, on sector
Kathmandu Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...
﹣Nepalgunj﹣Kathmandu, had landed at
Nepalgunj Airport Nepalgunj Airport is a domestic airport serving Nepalgunj, in Banke District, a district in Lumbini Province in Nepal. There are plans by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal to promote the airport to an international airport and establishing ...
on 18:11 NPT, the passengers had completed the boarding by 18:45 and the flight departed on 19:06, 26 minutes after the scheduled time of 18:40. Bhattarai apologized via
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for the incident saying that it was not deliberate and the program he attended in
Tikapur Tikapur () is a Municipality in Kailali District in Sudurpashchim Province of Nepal that was established in January 1997. Tikapur Municipality was further expanded on 10 March 2017 through merger with the two former Village development committee ...
lasted longer than expected.


Visit Nepal 2020

In January 2020, Yogesh Bhattarai faced criticism in social media for organizing
Visit Nepal 2020 Visit Nepal 2020, also known by the initialism VNY 2020, was a tourism advertising campaign released by the Government of Nepal as an extension of Visit Nepal campaigns of 1998 and 2011. The campaign was coordinated by Suraj Vaidya. The folkloric ...
promotional campaign in
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amid
2019–20 Australian bushfire season The 201920 Australian bushfire season commenced with serious uncontrolled fires in June 2019. , fires this season have burned an estimated , destroyed over 5,900 buildings (including 2,779 homes) and killed at least 34 people. An estimated o ...
. Nepali community expressed their dissatisfaction for the timing of the event, when
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
's own tourism body halted
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's ''Matesong'' ad campaign. The tourism minister was also criticized for a march rally to the
Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue Performing arts center, performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive b ...
which was stopped by the
police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...
, as organizers had no permission to hold such event. Bhattarai, however, wrote a Facebook status claiming that they had conducted a silent rally and the inauguration ceremony was a grand success. In February 2020, Tourism Minister Bhattarai extended a welcoming invitation to international travelers to be part of
Visit Nepal 2020 Visit Nepal 2020, also known by the initialism VNY 2020, was a tourism advertising campaign released by the Government of Nepal as an extension of Visit Nepal campaigns of 1998 and 2011. The campaign was coordinated by Suraj Vaidya. The folkloric ...
without any concern of presence of the coronavirus in Nepal. He highlighted Nepal as a COVID-free region as Nepal had no active cases by then. This caused a widespread backlash among the public, and the Visit Nepal campaign was eventually cancelled in March 2020.


Family

He was born on 6 September 1966 at Sangu,
Taplejung district Taplejung District ( ) is one of seventy-seven districts of Nepal and one of the 14 districts of Koshi Province. It is located deep in the Himalayas in Eastern Nepal with བོད to the north across the Himalayas. Taplejung is the third lar ...
to father Bhim Lal Bhattarai and mother Mahendra Devi Bhattarai. He is married to Binda Ghimire.


Electoral history

2022 Pratinidhi Sabha Election, Taplejung 2017 Pratinidhi Sabha Election, Taplejung 2013 Constituent Assembly Election, Kathmandu-6 2008 Constituent Assembly Election, Kathmandu-6


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhattarai, Yogesh Living people 1966 births People from Taplejung District Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) politicians Nepal Communist Party (NCP) politicians Nepal MPs 2017–2022 Nepal MPs 2022–present