page_title: Surya Bahadur Thapa
section_title: Later years and death
hierarchical_section_title: Surya Bahadur Thapa / Later years and death
caption_attribution_description: nepal's former prime minister SB thapa on his 86th birthday.
context_page_description: Surya Bahadur Thapa was the only Nepali politician a five-time Prime Minister of Nepal. He served under three different kings in a political career lasting more than 50 years.
  He started as a little known 4-day-flop as acting PM in 1955 but was widely respected and well liked. Then he was elected to the Upper house in 1959 and was appointed to the chair of the Council of Ministers from 1963–64. He went on to serve four further terms: 1965–69, 1979–83, 1997–98, and again in 2003 before leaving his Rastriya Prajatantra Party in November 2004.
  Surya Thapa was the first Prime Minister under the Panchayat System of Nepal. In his later years, he was the leader of Rastriya Janashakti Party. He died on 15 April 2015 from respiratory failure while undergoing surgery.
context_section_description: On February 6, 2008, Thapa initiated unity talks with the leader of RPP, Pashupati Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana. In a joint press conference, both Thapa and Rana agreed to unite RJP-RPP as one single party.  On March 6, he declared that his party was not monarchist, but would accept the verdict of the voters. RJP MPs had previously boycotted a vote in the interim parliament on making Nepal a republic. Thapa had dubbed the vote "an attack on the fundamental norms of democracy".
  Thapa died on April 15, 2015, aged 87 in Delhi, India, from respiratory failure while undergoing surgery.  He is survived by three daughters and a son, Sunil Bahadur Thapa, a former minister of commerce and supply.
caption: Thapa on his 86th birthday
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