Oli opposed India's 2015 blockade of Nepal.[10] He strengthened relations with China as an alternative to Nepal's traditionally close trade ties with India and updated the map of Nepal by constitutional amendment to include territories disputed with India, for which he has received some domestic praise and a reputation as a nationalist.[11][12] Oli's tenure in office have been controversial for frequent use of tongue-in-cheek remarks, hostility towards critics and the media,[13][14] and accusations of fostering cronyism and corruption .[15]
K.P. Sharma Oli was born on 22 February 1952 in IwainTehrathum. His father, Mohan Prasad Oli, was a farmer with limited education. His mother, Madhumaya Oli, died from smallpox when he was four. He had a younger brother and three younger sisters from his father's second marriage. Oli completed his primary level education at the nearby Pranami Middle School. His family moved to Surungwa, Jhapa in 1958 but following floods in the Kankai river, they were left landless and Oli moved in with his grandparents. His family then migrated to Garamani, Jhapa in 1962. He completed his SLC exama from Adarsha Secondary School in 1970. While in Jhapa, Oli was influenced by the anti-Panchayat and Naxalbari movements. He credits his distant uncle Ramnath Dahal for his communist inclination[16][17][18]
After he turned eighteen in 1970, Oli became a member of his local chapter of a splinter group of the Communist Party of Nepal. He was arrested in the same year for his involvement in subversive politics. His group later joined the district committee of CPN (Manmohan). After the party split in 1972, he became the organizing secretary of a Coordination Committee for the Jhapa rebellion after former secretary Radha Krishna Mainali contracted tuberculosis. Oli, Mohan Chandra Adhikari and Ram Nath Dahal advocated for organizational expansion and public mobilization arguing that authorities would crack down on them for any violent activities.[16][17][19] A majority of the committee favored an armed struggle however and in February 1973 he was removed as secretary and had his membership stripped off by hardliners within the committee led by Chandra Prakash Mainali. The next month, Ramnath Dahal was killed by the Panchayat administration.
Following his removal as secretary, Oli went into hiding in Biratnagar. He then got into contact with Mohan Chandra who was in Kanpur, India at the time. In October 1973 upon his return to Nepal, he was arrested in Rautahat and was imprisoned until 1987.[20] He was first kept in Gaur prison but was moved around before being sent to the Central Jail in Golghar. There he was kept in solitary confinement for four years.[16] Oli was made a central committee member of the Madan Bhandari-led CPN (Marxist–Leninist) while in jail and after his release in 1987 became involved in party activities. He was appointed the Lumbini Zonal chief for the United Left Front in 1989.[17][19][21]
After CPN (Marxist–Leninist) merged with CPN (Marxist) to form the CPN (Unified Marxist–Leninist) in 1991, Oli became a founding central committee member of the new party. Later that year he became the founding chairman of the Democratic National Youth Federation. In 1992, he was elected as a standing committee member of the party and was appointed as the chief of the party's publicity department.[17][21] In the 1991 election, Oli was elected from Jhapa 6. Oli supported party general secretary Madan Bhandari's proposal of People's Multiparty Democracy as the party line in the fifth party congress in 1993. After Bhandari's death on 16 May 1993, a commission to conduct an investigation was made by prime minster Girija Prasad Koirala under the leadership of former supreme court justice Prachanda Raj Anil. The UML labeled the party as pro-Congress and formed their own commission headed by Oli. The report by Oli claimed that the crash was an assasination, while the government commission claimed that the incident was an accident.[22][23]
He was reelected in the 1994 election from Jhapa 6 and became Home Minister in the minority government of Man Mohan Adhikari.[19] Oli was a coordinator of the party's Mahakali treaty study team and played a key role in the treaty's endorsement in the parliament. He supported general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal at the party's sixth national congress which was boycotted by members led by deputy general secretary Bam Dev Gautam. The boycotting members were suspended by the party and they broke off and reconstituted the CPN (Marxist–Leninist) citing their opposition to the treaty and their unfair treatment within the party.[19][21] He was reelected again in the 1999 election from Jhapa 2 and Jhapa 6, the latter of which he vacated. In the party's seventh congress in February 2003, Oli put forth a proposal to democratize the party structure and proposed a structure with a chairman and a general secretary. After he was outnumbered in the congress, he withdrew his proposal.[21][24]
Oli in 2011
Following the royal coup by King Gyanendra in 2005, he was put under house arrest.[25] Following the 2006 revolution, Oli was appointed as deputy prime minister and foreign minister in Girija Prasad Koirala's interim cabinet.[26] He was also made chair of a cabinet committee to implement the High Level Probe Commission report which investigated abuses of state power and funds since the royal coup.[27] Oli lost in the 2008 Constituent Assembly election in Jhapa 7. At the party's eight general convention in 2009, his previous proposal for organizational changes was accepted. He was also reelected to the central committee by the congress but lost his bid for party chair to Jhala Nath Khanal.[21][28]
In the 2013 Constituent Assembly election, Oli was elected from Jhapa 7. He also became the parliamentary party leader, defeating Khanal in the contest.[29] Oli again challenged for the party leadership at the ninth general convention in July 2015. He defeated former general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal and was elected as party chair.[30][21][31]
His appointment came at the time of protests in the southern plains demanding revisions to the constitution and a blockade imposed by India. Amid deteriorating relations with India, his cabinet recalled Nepal's ambassador to India, Dip Kumar Upadhaya following differences with the cabinet.[34] On March 20, he went on a state visit to China where the two countries signed trade and transit treaties.[35][36]
He resigned on 24 July 2016, after losing the support of his coalition partners. The main coalition partner CPN (Maoist Centre) and the opposition Nepali Congress had registered a no-confidence motion against his government on 14 July 2016.[37][38]
Second and third terms (February 2018–August 2021)
He was appointed prime minister for a second time on 15 February 2018 with the support of CPN (Maoist Centre). He passed the floor test on 11 March with 208 of 268 votes in the 275-member House of Representatives.[43][44] Following the merger of the two coalition partners to form the Nepal Communist Party, he became co-chair of the new party along with Pushpa Kamal Dahal.[45][46]
Oli in 2019
After pressure within the party from Madhav Kumar Nepal and other leaders to either give up the party leadership or the premiership, Dahal was made the executive head of the party.[47][48] He reshuffled his cabinet on 22 November to manage factions within the party.[49][50] His government also received criticism from leader within the party including Bhim Rawal for their agreement with the Unites States government for grants under the Millennium Challenge Corporation.[51]
His handling of the COVID-19 pandemic was criticized within the party. Party members were critical of an agreement with a private company in China to purchase medical equipment, and unbeknownst to cabinet members assigning the responsibility to purchase medical equipment to the Nepali Army. The government's late response in evacuating Nepalese citizens was also criticized.[52][53] He also received criticism for suggesting that the rising number of coronavirus cases were from individuals breaking the lockdown, especially those sneaking into Nepal from India. He also claimed that the corona is similar to the flu and that one should sneeze and drink hot water to drive the virus away.[54][55]
Following calls within the party to resign, Oli reshuffled his cabinet again in October 2020 but was admonished for not consulting the party.[62][63] Dahal presented a political document at a party secretariat meeting that accused K.P. Sharma Oli of not following the party's directions, unilaterally leading the government and turning a blind eye towards corruption.[64] In response, Oli attacked Dahal for not letting him run the government, promoting factionalism and nepotism as well as not letting victims of the Nepalese Civil War get justice.[65]
In 20 December 2020, K.P. Sharma Oli called on President Bidhya Devi Bhandari to dissolve the House of Representatives and call for fresh elections.[66] In an address to the nation, Oli said he dissolved the house after the party had not let him work as prime minister and that a no-confidence motion was being prepared against him from within the party.[67] The decision was met with criticism from within the party and seven ministers close to the Dahal–Nepal faction in his cabinet resigned in protest.[68] On 23 February 2021, a constitutional bench led by Chief JusticeCholendra Shumsher Rana declared the dissolution unconstitutional, and reinstated the House to meet within 13 days.[69][70] Oli respected the verdict and convened parliament on 7 March.[71][72]
On 7 March 2021, the Supreme Court ruled to award the Nepal Communist Party to Rishiram Kattel after he challenged the Election Commission's ruling of providing the name of his party to the NCP formed after the 2018 merger.[73] The verdict dissolved the ruling party jointly led by Oli and Dahal, reviving the former CPN (UML) and CPN (Maoist Centre) parties.[74] This reduced Oli's government back to a coalition, exacerbating political tensions. The CPN (Maoist Centre) recalled its ministers on 13 March 2021 and withdrew its support from the Oli government on 5 May 2021, turning it into a minority government.[75][76]
On 10 May 2021, Oli failed a vote of confidence with 93 of 232 in the House of Representatives, 43 below the 136 majority.[77][78] He then became a minority Prime Minister on 13 May 2021, when no opposition party formed a majority or claimed it in time.[79][80]Acabinet meeting chaired by prime minister and party chairman KP Sharma Oli recommended the president to dissolve the House of Representatives on 22 May 2021 after members of his party led by former prime ministers Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhala Nath Khanal supported Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba as the next prime minister.[81][82] On 12 July 2021, the constitutional bench of the Supreme Court formed to hear the opposition's writs against the dissolution. It declared the dissolution unconstitutional and ordered the appointment of Deuba as prime minister within 28 hours.[83][84][85][86] After Nepal and Khanal were suspended by the party for disobeying party orders the party split in August the former party leaders forming the CPN (Unified Socialist).[87][88][89] Oli was re-elected party chair in the 10th general convention of the CPN (UML) in November 2021 defeating Bhim Rawal in the leadership election.[90][91]
In the 2022 general election, his party became the second-largest party in the House of Representatives.[92] Oli was reelected from Jhapa 5 with a majority of over 29,000 votes.[93] After power-sharing talks broke down inside the ruling alliance, Oli and Dahal brokered a deal, backing Dahal's bid as prime minister.[94] The UML withdrew from the coalition government ahead of the presidential election in March 2023, but joined hands with Dahal again in March 2024.[95][96]
Following disagreements with the prime minister and other coalition partners about the annual budget and citing the need for a stable government of national consensus, Oli and Nepali Congress' Deuba agreed on 1 July 2024 to form a rotational government with the two party chairs serving equal time as prime minister.[97][98] CPN (UML) withdrew its support from the Dahal government, and following a failed a motion of confidence for Dahal in the House on 12 July, Oli was appointed prime minister for a fourth stint on 14 July as part of a coalition with the Nepali Congress, and sworn in the following day.[99][100][101]
Oli credits his distant uncle Ramnath Dahal for his communist beliefs. As a student in Jhapa at the time, he was influenced by the Naxalite insurgencyinWest Bengal, India. He had not studied Marxism but had followed the line of Cultural Revolution in his earlier days. He later claimed that it was a "mistaken path".[16]
Oli was regularly in conflict with "hardliners" that advocated for armed struggle against the Panchayat administration.[16][20] He has been critical of the Maoists for the loss of life during the Civil War.[65]
While organizing the Jhapa rebellion, organizers hired two Naxalite guerrillas to train their members. Oli supported Mohan Chandra Adhikari's opinion that their presence was part of India's imperialist ambitions in the region.
Oli played an important role in getting parliamentary support for the Mahakali treaty that was to be signed with India. The treaty was a reason cited for causing a split in the party and it led to Oli being seen as a pro-India leader.[20]
During his first tenure in 2015, he pushed for closer ties with China following the blockade by India.[35] In his second tenure his government brought in amendments to the constitution which added the disputed territories of Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura to the official map of the country in response to the inauguration of a road across Lipulekh by India.[58]
After the dissolution of the parliament in 2003, there were claims from some that Oli had dealings with the palace .[102] He had commented that turning Nepal into a republic would be like "making for America in a bullock cart".[103] Oli also defied party whip and was not present when the interim legislature declared Nepal as a republic.[104]
Oli has also been seen as favoring centralization. During his second term as prime minister he centralized more executive power into his post.[105] He has also been seen as unwilling to let provincial and local governments function autonomously.[106][107]
Oli is married to Radhika Shakya. He met Shakya in 1987 an event organized by CPN (Marxist–Leninist)atPulchowk Campus for recently released political prisoners. She was working as a temporary worker for Nepal Rastra Bank at the time, while studying at Patan Campus. The two married later that year in a wedding ceremony attended by 20 people.[108][109]
Oli is known for his tongue-in-cheek remarks and use of slang and various proverbs, often with double meanings and criticism, some directed to his own party.[114][16] Oli claims he learnt this technique during the Panchayat era when he was underground to entertain his colleagues.[16] Sometimes he is alleged to be a "Comedian in Politics". Some of his controversial claims are:
Supercomputer, February 2019: Oli claimed that the world is amazed by the supercomputer being built by Nepal. He was referring to a computer that was being built in the Banepa IT Park, which the makers have claimed to be a supercomputer in spite of its lacking computing power.[115]
Rhino and Mount Everest, August 2019: Oli claimed the English word rhinoceros should be replaced by the Nepali word for the animal, Gainda (Nepali: गैँडा, romanized: Gaim̐ḍā), and Mount Everest should be known as Sagarmatha (Nepali: सगरमाथा, romanized: Sagarmāthā) by everyone.[116] He said, "...Do you know what [a] gaida [is]? You people know [a] gaida as [a] rhino. But rhinos are not rhinos, they are gaida. I request you to remember this word—gaida...".[117]
Indian coronavirus, May 2020: During the COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal, Oli had lashed out at India, saying that the "Indian virus" was more dangerous than the "Chinese or Italian virus" and even made light of the Indian national emblem.[118] He said this during an address to the parliament where he blamed the rising number of coronavirus cases on individuals violating the nationwide lockdown, especially those sneaking into Nepal from India, claiming that "people coming from India through illegal channels are spreading the virus in the country."[119] This sparked a round of media attention in India.[120][121]
Sneeze out the virus, June 2020: While addressing the National Assembly, Oli claimed, "...Corona is like the flu, if contracted, one should sneeze, drink hot water and drive the virus away..." generating ridicule in the national media and social networks. He also claimed ginger, garlic and turmeric are known to have vitamins and antioxidants that can help boost the immune system to fight coronavirus.[122]
Lord Rama is a Nepali, July 2020: While addressing a function celebrating the 207th birth anniversary of poet Bhanubhakta Acharya, Oli said Lord Rama was born in Nepal and India had created a fake Ayodhya.[123][124][125] He claimed Thori, a place near Birgunj in southern Nepal, to be the birthplace of Rama and it was impossible for Rama to reach Janakpur in eastern Nepal to marry Sita from Ayodhya in India. He later launched an investigation into this matter, asking officials in the region to research the whereabouts of Ayodhyapuri.[17] He also claimed to have found strong evidences of the real Ayodhya, supposedly including the ruins of Someshwar Gadhi and Valmiki Ashram, both of whom are associated with Lord Rama.[17]
Yoga originated in Nepal, June 2021: On the occasion of International Day of Yoga on 21 June 2021, Oli claimed that yoga originated in Uttarakhand and Nepal in particular.[126] According to him, India as a country did not exist at the time when yogic science was founded.[127][128][129] This caused backlash from Nepali and Indian social media.[130]
^ abcPrime Minister Oli in charge of all portfolios not allocated to any other minister. Defence since 14 October 2020 and Foreign Affairs since 24 June 2021, until 13 July 2021.
Y Elected
N Lost
