When Nepal goes for national polls on Thursday, political observers across the Asian region continue looking for Pushpa Kamal Dahal (popularly known as Prachanda), who led a decade long anti-monarchy Maoist movement in the Hindu majority Himalayan nation that dethroned the last king Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev in 2006. Within the next two years, the poverty-stricken country of over 30 million people abolished the 240 years old monarchy to emerge as a multi-party federal democratic republic and Prachanda became the prime minister in 2008. The septuagenarian leader now leads an alliance of several leftist groups under the banner of Nepali Communist Party.

Engaging other prominent Marxist leaders like Madhav Kumar Nepal, Prachanda now hopes for reviving his popularity and influence in the country. The Maoists promised many things, but in reality, the people of Nepal only witnessed high level corruption in public life inspired by the new found political system. Moreover, frequent changes of governments in Kathmandu as 14 premature reshuffles among political leaders were recorded within two decades dejected the common Nepali nationals.

When former premier KP Sharma Oli (leading the Communist Party of........

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