Bidya Bhattarai

Bidya Bhattarai (also Bidhya Bhattarai) is a Nepali politician and the past Minister of Education, Science and Technology of Nepal. Since 2019, she has been a member of the House of Representatives of the Federal Parliament of Nepal. She won the by-election of Kaski-2, a constituency that was made empty by the death of her husband, cabinet minister Rabindra Prasad Adhikari, in a helicopter crash in February 2019. She defeated her nearest rival, Khemraj Paudel of Nepali Congress, by a margin of more than 8,000 votes. She was re-elected in 2022 from the same constituency. Due to failure to pass the School Education Bill, she gave her resignation as Minister of Education, Science and Technology on 21st April 2025 in the midst of weeks-long (started on 2nd April 2025) protests by community school teachers demanding passage of the School Education Bill. Bhattarai claimed 6 group of mafia were working to get her to resign. Bhattarai claimed in interview with Image Channel HD her version of eduction institution in Nepal, clashed with the prime minister KP Sharma Oli.

On 21 April 2025, Bidya Bhattarai resigned as the Minister of Education, Science and Technology following the 2025 Nepal Teachers Protest, where public school teachers demanded the passage of the School Education Bill. The protests had shut down thousands of schools across the country and intensified public pressure on the government. According to media reports, internal disagreements with the Prime Minister and Finance Minister regarding the bill’s handling also contributed to her decision to step down. Her resignation was widely interpreted as a response to the government’s failure to address teachers’ demands and delay in passing the School Education Bill.