CPN-UML lawmaker Raghuji Panta is set to become the new minister for education.
Ram Sharan Bajgain, press advisor to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, said that preparations are underway to appoint Panta as the education minister.
The position has remained vacant since Bidya Bhattarai resigned as education minister on Monday.
As per the constitutional provision, the president appoints ministers on the recommendation of the prime minister.
Panta was active in journalism before he joined politics. He began working as a journalist in 1975, contributing to publications such as Budhabar Weekly, Chhalphal Weekly, Nawayug Monthly, Yugdhara (Red). He also worked for the Federation of Nepali Journalists.
In 1994, he was appointed press advisor to the then prime minister Man Mohan Adhikari.
He then entered politics and was elected as a central member of the CPN-UML by the party’s general convention held in Nepalgunj in 1997.
Panta was elected to the House of Representatives from Lalitpur constituency no. 3 in 1999.
He also served as the head of the UML’s central department of culture, water, and energy.
He was re-elected as a central member at the party’s seventh general convention in 2002. Two years later, he was appointed minister for labor and transport, and in 2006, he was a member of the reinstated Parliament.
Panta has previously held roles in the party’s law, social service, and publicity departments. He is currently the head of the culture department. In the December 2022 election, he was elected to the House of Representatives through the proportional representation system.
