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Do we like Pushpa Kamal Dahal?

Our score: 5 out of 10. Not enough verified reporting to go higher or lower, so he lands in the middle.

Pushpa Kamal Dahal, better known as Prachanda, is one of Nepal's best-known politicians and a former prime minister. We have to be upfront here: the research tools for this check kept getting blocked, so only two news pages opened in full. Everything below stands on those two, and the full backstory of his career isn't covered.

The freshest news is the March 2026 election. Ratopati reported that he won the Rukum East seat for the CPN, which it calls his party, with 10,240 votes. That was a margin of 6,778 over the CPN-UML candidate, who got 3,462.

On the protests themselves, he told the commission he condemned the crackdown the day before the worst of the unrest and appealed publicly for protesters to be declared martyrs. He also said his party backed the spirit of the movement but took no part in the violence, and that members proven to be involved should face legal action. He said his Kathmandu rented accommodation and a Chitwan house were vandalised and burned.

On how power works, he acknowledged that political interference has affected the police, civil service and judiciary, while saying he prioritised merit in appointments and transfers. That's an admission, and it cuts both ways: it's candid, but it comes from a man who held the top job. We found nothing on his own words about LGBTQ+ people, women or the climate in what we could read, so we can't score him on those.

The honest gap is the big one. Dahal led a decade-long Maoist insurgency, and search results point to Supreme Court petitions over conflict-era deaths and child soldiers. We couldn't open those reports to confirm their status or his responses, so we've left them out of the evidence boxes. Check them before you decide.