Kathmandu,  May 16:  Tributes have been paid to the then General Secretary of CPN (UML) Madan Kumar Bhandari and the then Head of the Organization Department of the party Jeevaraj Ashrit, on the occasion of the 31st Memorial Day today by recalling their contribution to the party and the communist movement.

Former President Bidya Devi Bhandari and UML chair KP Sharma Oli including other senior leaders paid tributes to the late Bhandari and Ashrit by offering wreaths to their statues at Madannagar, Balkhu in the capital today.

Senior Vice Chairman Ishwar Pokharel, Vice Chairs Yuvraj Gyawali, Ashtalakshmi Shakya and Bishnu Prasad Paudel, General Secretary Shankar Pokharel, Deputy General Secretary Pradeep Kumar Gyawali and Prithvi Subba Gurung, Secretary Yogesh Bhattarai, Advisory Council Chairman Amrit Kumar Bohara, Standing Committee Member Krishna Gopal Shrestha among other leaders of the party expressed their tributes to them.

Leaders Bhandari and Ashrit were killed in a jeep accident at Dasdhunga in Chitwan on May 16, 1993. 

The UML has been following the guiding principle of People’s Multiparty Democracy propounded by Leader Bhandari, which the party adopted from its Fifth National Congress. (RSS)