were democratically elected in public positions such as municipal councils, should continue their jobs for maintaining continued contacts with their constituencies, instead of playing an opposition role and going to jail. This policy of Man Mohan was a key move for the re-invigoration and expansion of the communist party in Eastern Nepal. As per the instruction of leader Adhikari, a public statement pledging support to the Constructive Leadership of the King was issued and several leaders of the then Nepal Communist Party under custody in Sunsari and Morang districts were freed. After release from the jail Shailendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Radha Parsad Ghimire (who was released after few months), Shailendra was given an audience by the King in Kathmandu, and entrusted an assignment to galvanize support for the political action taken by the King recently, who later was made the Assistant Home Affairs Minister of the country by King Mahendra. During the Bangladesh Liberation War, Adhikari asserted that the war was an Indian aggression against Pakistan. In November 1994, elections were held following a dissolution of parliament. Despite Congress securing a higher popular vote than the UML, the latter secured 88 seats to the former's 83. Neither party was successful in forming a coalition to hold a majority of the 205 seats. After failed coalition negotiations, however, Adhikari became Prime Minister of a minority government, acquiring the support of the National Democratic Party and the Sadbhavana Party. In June 1995, the National Democratic Party and the Sadbhavana Party (who helped the UML form a minority government in November 1994) supported the Nepali Congress's call for a vote of no-confidence in Adhikari's government in a special session of the House of Representatives. Adhikari attempted to dissolve parliament and call elections in an attempt to replicate the circumstances under which he assumed office in 1994. But a Supreme Court challenge led by Congress saw this move deemed unconstitutional and the parliament was restored. The vote of no-confidence proceeded successfully. Elections in 1995 saw Adhikari's government voted out of office. Adhikari was one of the few democratically elected communist party members in the world to serve as head of the government. Health and death Adhikari suffered from asthma for four decades and went to China for four years to seek treatment after contracting tuberculosis. On 19 April 1999, he suffered a heart attack during an election rally in the village of Gothatar and