Sushil Koirala will assume his office as the country’s 37th prime minister—the fifth after the country became a republic—today. The septuagenarian Nepali Congress (NC) president will take the leadership of the government that has a challenging responsibility of delivering a new constitution within a year.     

Born on 12 August 1939 to Bodh Prasad and Kuminidi Devi at Biratnagar in Morang district, Koirala started his political career from his schooldays at the age of 15 inspired by the social-democratic ideals of his cousin BP Koirala, the NC founding leader. 

Often regarded as a leader of a clean political image, Koirala has spent over 60 years in Nepali politics. Though he is not known for being at the forefront in the past political movements, Koirala’s role in a struggle for democracy cannot be undervalued. 

   After the royal takeover in 1960, Koirala went to a political exile in India where he remained for 16 years along with other members of the Koirala family. During the exile years, he was also the editor of the NC mouthpiece, Tarun. 

Koirala is mostly remembered for his involvement in the hijacking of a plane belonging to the Nepal Airlines that was believed to be carrying a huge amount of money which the NC needed to support its movement against the Panchayat Regime. In 1973, he was arrested in India for hijacking the plane and he served the jail term for three years. 

Since 1979, Koirala has been a member of the Central Working Committee of the NC. He was appointed the party’s general secretary in 1996 and the vice president in 1998. Koirala was also elected to the parliament from Banke district in 1991 and 1999, respectively.

In 2001, Koirala was defeated by NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba in the race for the parliamentary party leadership. 

In 2008, Koirala was appointed the acting president of the NC by Girija Prasad Koirala, the former party president. After serving two years as the NC acting president, the party’s 12th general convention in 2010 elected Koirala the party president. In the second Constituent Assembly elections on 19 November 2013, Koirala won from both his constituencies in Banke and Chitwan.  

The NC leaders who know him closely say that Koirala believes in the value based politics rather than glamour. 

“Though he was not established leader from any movement, his value based politics has kept him into politics for such a long time,” said Puranjan Acharya an analyst who knows Koirala closely.