Senior leaders of the UCPN (Maoist)Baburam Bhattrai Born in a lower middle class family on June 18, 1954, in Belbas, Khoplang VDC, Gorkha district, Dr. Baburam Bhattarai is one of the outstanding personalities in the political and intellectual sphere of the country. Former Prime Minister Dr. Bhattarai is a senior leader of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the largest party in the country. Dr. Bhattarai became the 35th Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Nepal for a tenure of about one and a half years.Earlier to this, he served as the first Finance Minister of the Federal Republic of Nepal during the Puspa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda'-led government in 2008.Dr. Bhattarai has a fascinating family background that is unknown to many. The Bhattarais were traditional priests and astrologers to the Sen Kings of Palpa who were known to have migrated to Liglig area of Gorkha around 15th century AD. Interestingly, one Gajanan Bhattarai, along with Ganesh Pandey and others, was instrumental in installing Drabya Shah as the King of Liglig and Gorkha. One branch of the same Bhattarai lineage remained in Belbas, in the foothills of Liglig kot, as peasants. It was here, in the mid-hills of Nepal, that Baburam Bhattarai was born to Bhoj Prasad Bhattarai and Dharma Kumari Bhattarai. He was the second son in a family of an elder sister, a younger brother and a younger sister. In an ironical twist of history, 240 years after the establishment of the Shah dynasty in which the Bhattarais played an important role, a member of the same Bhattarai lineage was to become instrumental in abolishing the feudal monarchy. He is one of the architects of the chain of political events that led to the establishment of a Republic Nepal.
