Lokendra Bahadur Chand is a Nepalese politician and writer who served as prime minister four times between 1983 and 2003. A former Panchayat-era officeholder and founder of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, he also became known for Nepali literature, winning the Madan Puraskar for his short-story collection Bisarjan.
Background
Chand was born on 15 February 1940 in Kurukuti, Baitadi District, in far-western Nepal. His parents were Mahavir Chand and Laxmi Chand. His early schooling included Pithoragarh, India, which served as an educational center for students from Nepal’s far west. Chand recalled composing Hindi poetry as a boy and receiving help from his teacher Banshidhar Bhatt in shaping an early poem’s meter. His father recited Chandi verses and played the sitar, and arranged music lessons at home; Chand later said these sounds may have encouraged his interest in writing. He began writing short stories around 2020/21 BS, more than six decades before a 2026 account of his career. He married and had seven children.
Education
Chand studied in Pithoragarh before attending Tri-Chandra College in Kathmandu for certificate-level studies. Established in 1918, Tri-Chandra was Nepal’s first college and an early center of higher education in the country. He continued his studies in India at DSB Degree College in Nainital, where he earned a B.A., and at Dayanand Anglo-Vedic Post-Graduate College in Dehradun, where he studied law and earned an LL.B. The Dehradun college developed from an Arya Samaj school and combined Dayanand’s educational ideals with Anglo-style education; it became a postgraduate college in 1948. Chand completed law studies in India by 1966.
Career
Chand’s early public work combined education and legal practice. From 1961 to 1964 he helped found Shree Basudev High School in Liskita and taught there voluntarily. He then provided legal advisory services in Baitadi from 1964 to 1968. In the Panchayat system, Nepal’s partyless political structure, he held local and regional offices: vice-chairman of Liskita Village Panchayat in 1968, chairman of Baitadi District Panchayat in 1970, and president of Mahakali Zonal Panchayat in 1973. The system organized local councils beneath the national Rastriya Panchayat, which served as the national legislature. Chand became a member of the Rastriya Panchayat and later served as its vice-chairman and chairman.
Chand entered national executive office as prime minister four times. His first term ran from 12 July 1983 to 21 March 1986, during the partyless Panchayat era. He served again from 6 to 19 April 1990 during the transition to multiparty government, and from 12 March to 7 October 1997, when he led a coalition government. He was among the founders of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, established after the restoration of multiparty politics, and led its Chand faction. Following the merger of Chand and Surya Bahadur Thapa’s party factions, he chaired the party’s parliamentary board in 1994. He served in Nepal’s House of Representatives from 1994 to 1999.
On 11 October 2002, King Gyanendra appointed Chand prime minister after dismissing the elected government of Sher Bahadur Deuba. This appointment took place amid Nepal’s armed conflict and a period of direct royal intervention in government. Chand left office on 5 June 2003. He later served in the Constituent Assembly from 2008 to 2012, during the process of establishing Nepal as a republic. Alongside politics, he built a substantial literary career in Nepali and Hindi, writing short stories, essays, poetry, and drama.
Achievements
He served as prime minister of Nepal four times, across the Panchayat era, the 1990 political transition, and the multiparty period.
Marquis Who’s Who included a biographical entry on Chand as a noteworthy prime minister of Nepal.
In 2026 he was selected for the Basundhara Shree Award for contributions to Nepali literature, including fiction, drama, and essays.
Works
hindi poetry collection
Indradhanush
(A collection of Chand’s Hindi poetry; it received the Dr....)
(A collection of 11 stories that won the 2054 BS Madan Pur...)
1998
Hiunka Tanna
(A Nepali short-story collection.)
1985
Ratribhoj
(A Nepali short-story collection.)
2007
Politics
Chand was affiliated with the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), a party founded by politicians associated with Nepal’s Panchayat era after multiparty politics returned in 1990. It presented nationalism, democracy, and liberalism as guiding principles and supported constitutional monarchy. The party included competing factions and developed within Nepal’s transition from a partyless political order to parliamentary competition; affiliation does not establish that Chand endorsed every party position.
Membership
Chand’s documented participation included the Mahakali Sewa Samaj, a social-service organization he helped establish, and the Nepal Red Cross Society. Founded in 1963, the Nepal Red Cross is part of the international Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and works to relieve human suffering and reduce vulnerability. His Rastriya Prajatantra Party participation connected him to a party formed by political figures from the Panchayat era as Nepal returned to multiparty competition.
Founding Chairman
Mahakali Sewa Samaj
,
Nepal
1967
Member of the Central Executive Committee
Nepal Red Cross Society
,
Nepal
1970
Founder and chairman of the Chand faction
Rastriya Prajatantra Party
,
Nepal
1991
Interests
Reading, literature, harmonium playing, and yoga.
Connections
Chand was the son of Mahavir Chand and Laxmi Chand. He married and had seven children. His eldest son, Jayant Chand, is active in politics; his younger son Arun later hosted him. Chand’s literary work and political career developed alongside one another, and he continued writing during his public service.
