He remained virtually powerless within a few years into the insurgency when Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal centralized power in his own hands.[break]
He was rendered an ordinary party member in 2005 when he vehemently opposed Dahal´s strategy to join hands with former King Gyanendra and fight a “tunnel war” against the “expansionist” India. And he was almost forced to quit the party last November when Dahal joined forces with the party hardliners led by Mohan Baidya and endorsed the line of urban insurrection.
But history took a surprising turn last month. In one of the most unexpected incidents, Baidya and Bhattarai, backed by other senior leaders, vowed to clip the wings of the all-powerful chairman who always switched sides to maintain his supremacy in the party. Subsequently, Bhattarai, an introvert politician, succeeded in becoming the party´s prime ministerial candidate and subsequently marched his way to the helm of power at 6 pm Sunday.
Born to a lower middle-class family in the rural backwaters of Khoplang in Gorkha on May 26, 1954, Bhattarai´s journey in politics was not a smooth ride. He was the second among the four children of Bhoj Prasad Bhattarai and Dharma Kumari Bhattarai. He spent his early childhood grazing goats and working in his small farm. He was hardworking and intelligent since childhood and that made him stand out among his siblings. He studied at a missionary school in Luintel village of Gorkha. And he surprised one and all by becoming the top scorer in SLC exams of 1970. The success boosted his confidence and opened up new possibilities, despite his humble background.
After passing intermediate level from Amrit Science Campus in Kathmandu, he got a scholarship to study engineering in Chandigarh of Punjab in India. Bhattarai had not developed an interest in politics then.
After graduating he moved to Delhi where he completed his masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the School of Planning and Architecture. There he met his current wife Hisila Yami and both tied the knot. In 1986, Yami gave birth to Manushi Yami Bhattarai who is now actively involved in politics.
But Bhattarai began to develop intense interest in politics after arriving in Delhi, which was the center of regional politics. There he also came into contact with various personalities including Hrishikesh Shah, Pradip Giri, Vedanta Jha, SD Muni, and Mohan Bikram Singh, among others.
After he was admitted to Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), which is a leftist bastion, he became a diehard Marxist. The influence that Marxism had on him is also apparent in his PhD thesis entitled “The Nature of Underdevelopment and Regional Structure of Nepal -- A Marxist Analysis”.
His life as a politician began after he founded an organization called All India Nepalese Students Union during his stay in India. Later, he merged this organization with the Fourth Convention led by Mohan Bikram Singh, and finally returned to Nepal in1986. To his dismay, the Fourth Convention split into many groups after he joined the party, but he did not abandon Singh who was well-versed in the Marxist philosophy.
But he was soon disillusioned with Singh whom he found reluctant to chart out plans to launch communist movement in Nepal.
Bhattarai led the United National People´s Movement, a political front of radical communist parties, during the 1990 mass movement, and got involved in the unification of the leftist groups. And in 1992, he completely severed ties with Singh and joined the Unity Center led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal as a politburo member.
In the first general election in 1992, he led the party´s political front called United People´s Front that won nine seats in the 205-member House of Representatives.
His analytical prowess, intellect and his roles in the anti-Panchayat movement and then United People´s Front has already earned him repute as a seasoned politician.
After the Maoist insurgency gained momentum, there was, however, a tussle between Dahal and Bhattarai. Bhattarai´s image eclipsed Dahal to the outside world. But the party could not downsize Bhattarai as there was no one in the party who could match his intellectual prowess.
Bhattarai received a major blow when Dahal and Baidya joined forces and came up with the proposal to centralize power in the hands of Dahal in 1998. Reduced to a minority, Bhattarai could do nothing but to wait and see. There were several occasions when he felt humiliated and fought against Dahal virtually alone.
But Bhattarai´s position strengthened again after the party adopted his line of tactical shift from the protracted people´s war to peaceful politics during the famous Chunwang meeting in 2005. The Maoists signed a 12-point agreement with the parties that subsequently overthrew the monarchy and brought the Maoists into the mainstream politics. The party then emerged as the largest in the Constituent Assembly polls.
After a long saga of conflict with the party chairman over the post of prime minister, Bhattarai has finally made it. But the road ahead is certainly not a smooth one. Bhattarai will have to tackle the tricky problems of the peace and constitution, which entails taking the oppositional parties, including the NC and UML, into confidence.
But Bhattarai has so far been like a swimmer scoring for himself alone, and not like a footballer whose success depends on the efforts of the entire team. It is yet to be seen whether Bhattarai wins the confidence of the NC and UML, and takes the peace process to its logical end. Hopefully Bhattarai has yet another surprise up his sleeve.
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