# Girija Prasad Koirala becomes Prime Minister (May 1991)

URL: https://allhistories.com/nepal/timeline/1991-girija-prasad-koirala-becomes-prime-minister
Location: Singha Durbar, Kathmandu
Themes: Communism, Political parties

In late May 1991 Girija Prasad Koirala was appointed prime minister after the Nepali Congress won 110 of 205 seats. He had been the party's general secretary from 1975 to 1991 and was prominent in the 1990 People's Movement. His first term lasted until 1994, and he returned as prime minister in 1998 and 2000, according to Britannica. He succeeded the interim prime minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, who had been defeated in his own constituency. Koirala himself won his seat and led a majority government that faced a stagnant economy, regional ethnic and religious movements and a divided democratic movement, as Britannica summarises the problems of the early 1990s. His first government signed new trade and transit treaties with India in December 1991 but was weakened by party feuding and ended in 1994. Koirala remained the central figure of Nepali Congress politics for another fifteen years, and he later led the parties through the 2006 movement and the peace process. At this point in the timeline (1991), King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah (31 January 1972 – 1 June 2001) was head of state of the Kingdom of Nepal, while Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai (19 April 1990 – 26 May 1991) headed the government.

## Why it matters
Koirala headed the first elected cabinet after 1990, and his three terms in the decade shaped how the parliamentary system worked in practice.

Ruler at the Time: [Birendra Bir Bikram Shah](https://allhistories.com/nepal/rulers/birendra-bir-bikram-shah)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Girija Prasad Koirala](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girija_Prasad_Koirala)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Girija Prasad Koirala](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Girija-Prasad-Koirala)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Nepal: Constitutional monarchy](https://www.britannica.com/place/Nepal/Constitutional-monarchy)