KATHMANDU, Sept 29: Radha Krishna Mainali, former leftist leader who joined the then king Gyanendra´s royal government as a minister, joined UCPN (Maoist) party on Wednesday afternoon.
Mainali, 66, formally joined the Maoist party in a small function at the party headquarters on Wednesday afternoon where Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, vice-chair Mohan Vaidya and leader Ram Bahadur Thapa were present. [break]
'Mainali Fiction Honour' to Sagar
Mainali led the Jhapa rebellion for which he was imprisoned for 13 years from 1973. He was also key figure during the 1990 People´s Movement as the acting chairman of the United Left Front.
Mainali won the 1994 parliamentary election from Jhapa and was appointed Minister for Agriculture, Land Reforms and Management in Man Mohan Adhikari´s leftist government; and Minister of Health in coalition government under Lokendra Bahadur Chand.
He however lost his creditable image of democratic leader when he became the Minister for Education and Sports following the royal takeover in 2005.
