The last rites of former Prime Minister Kirti Nidhi Bista were performed at Pashupati Aryaghat as per the Hindu culture on Saturday afternoon.

Bista’s eldest son lit the funeral pyre.

CPN-UML senior leader and former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) Chairman and Deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa and Ekikrit Rastriya Prajatantra Party Rastrabadi leader Prakash Chandra Lohani among other leaders had reached Pashupati Aryaghat this afternoon to pay their respects to Bista.

According to family sources, Bista breathed his last at his residence in Gyaneshwor at 10:30 am today. He was 90.

He was suffering from cancer for a long time.

Born in Thamel, Kathmandu, Bista became Prime Minister for three times from 1969 to 1970, 1971 to 1973 and 1977 to 1979. 

The third tenure was during the reign of late King Birendra who was among the royals killed in a mass shooting that occurred inside the Narayanhiti Palace in 2001.

He retired from politics after Nepal became a multi-party democracy and constitutional monarchy in 1990.

Bista, however, was appointed as the Vice-Chair in the government led by then King Gyanendra Shaha.