Doctor Ramji Ram has been included in the proportional representation closed list submitted to the Election Commission by the Rastriya Swatantra Party for the February 21 election. He was nominated from the team associated with Kathmandu Metropolitan City Mayor Balen Shah.
Ramji Ram is the doctor who studied MBBS on a full government scholarship under the Madhesi Dalit quota. Following his entry into politics, questions have emerged over whether the state’s investment in his medical education has been rendered ineffective.
However, Ramji Ram has already completed the mandatory service requirement for government scholarship recipients. He worked for two years at Chandranigahapur Hospital in Rautahat, as required under the scholarship agreement. After completing that term, he has not continued clinical practice.
Addressing the controversy surrounding his inclusion in the proportional list, Ramji Ram was asked whether the state’s investment could have benefited someone else if he intended to pursue politics. In response, he said he has not entered politics on a full-time basis and has not completely abandoned his profession.
Explaining his decision to engage in politics, Ramji Ram said that during his two years of medical service he encountered multiple systemic problems that could not be resolved at an individual level.
“Poor patients arrive at hospitals wearing slippers, but before treatment they are asked to produce a ‘poverty certificate,’” he said. “There are many such problems. I felt these issues require solutions at a broader level.”
He also pointed to the financial burden of healthcare, stating that when a patient spends NPR 50,000 on surgery, their family can remain in debt for years. He believes such structural problems can only be addressed through political intervention.
“Being a doctor is not limited to prescribing medicine or giving injections; communication is also part of medicine,” Ramji Ram said. “Clinical science is one aspect of health, but social science and public health are equally important. When a doctor begins thinking beyond individual patients and focuses on the health of the community and the country, the need for policy and resources becomes evident. Politics then becomes another path.”
He said entering policy-making spaces could help encourage leadership to prioritize healthcare reform, adding that his aim is to work as a doctor engaged in advocacy. Responding to whether advocacy could be pursued without entering politics, he said that voices raised only from within the medical profession often fail to reach policy-making levels.
“Doctors have spoken not only about patient care but also about the issues faced by healthcare workers themselves. However, those voices do not reach decision-makers,” he said. “That is why I am trying to enter politics.”
Ramji Ram said he had been in dialogue with Mayor Balen Shah’s team for over a month and was included in the proportional list through that engagement.
He also publicly opposed the exclusion of Vijay Jairu, who received the highest number of votes in the Dalit cluster during the party’s internal election, from the list submitted to the Election Commission. Ramji Ram suggested that Jairu should be included even if it requires removing his own name.
In an interview with, he said party leaders made errors while preparing the proportional list and that internal pressure is being applied to correct those mistakes.
