Kathmandu, Oct 12 — Nepal's only billionaire, Binod Chaudhary, continues to make strides in politics after getting elected as one of the Vice-Presidents of the Nepali Congress at its 15th general convention.
Chaudhary, the only Nepali on Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires, had a net worth of $2.1 billion in 2026. He was elected to the post under the inclusive quota, securing 1,745 votes, according to the Nepali Congress Central Election Committee. His closest rival, Jeevan Pariyar, received 1,658 votes.
Chaudhary has controlling interests in businesses, including a popular noodles brand company, as well as hospitality assets worldwide. His business interests also include a bank in Nepal and several luxury hotels associated with India’s Taj hotel chain, according to Forbes.
His net worth stood at $1.3 billion in 2017 which rose to $2.1 billion in 2026 before declining in 2020 and 2021 amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Although he was defeated in the March 5 parliamentary election by a candidate from the now-ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), Chaudhary, like several other opposition leaders, has strengthened his position within the Nepali Congress.
After being elected vice-president, Chaudhary thanked the general convention delegates who voted for him. Earlier, he had said he was contesting for the post to establish the Nepali Congress as a party capable of leading the country’s economic transformation. The party is widely credited with playing a key role in Nepal’s democratic transformation.
Although Chaudhary is now active in politics through the Nepali Congress, his political career began in 2008, when he became a member of the Constituent Assembly representing the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), or CPN-UML.
Following the first Constituent Assembly election, he became a Constituent Assembly member through the party’s proportional-representation list. His entry into parliament, therefore, came through proportional representation rather than a direct election.
In 2017, he formally joined the Nepali Congress as an elected lawmaker under the proportional quota. He subsequently secured a place in the party’s central leadership through inclusive representation.
At the Nepali Congress’s 14th general convention in 2021, he was elected a central committee member under the Madhesi quota, securing 2,206 votes.
Chaudhary was elected to the House of Representatives in the 2022 parliamentary election as a Nepali Congress candidate from Constituency No. 1 in Nawalparasi West district.
However, in the parliamentary election held on March 5 this year following the Gen-Z movement last year, he lost the same constituency to Bikram Khanal, a candidate from the RSP, which now commands nearly a two-thirds majority in the lower house of parliament.
The electoral defeat did not deter Chaudhary from continuing to play an active role in the party as he further strengthened his position by winning the position of vice-president in the party.
The 70-year-old has previously led two major private-sector bodies: the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Confederation of Nepalese Industries.