Kathmandu, July 28 -- Gopal Man Shrestha, a senior Nepali Congress leader and one of the key architects of Nepal's democratic transition, died on Tuesday morning while undergoing treatment for cancer at Helios Hospital in Jawalakhel, Lalitpur. He was 83.

His political career spanned more than six decades, from student activism against the partyless Panchayat system to the restoration of multiparty democracy, the reunification of the Nepali Congress, and the establishment of the federal democratic republic.

Shrestha assumed the leadership of the Nepali Congress after its president, Sher Bahadur Deuba, was arrested on April 27, 2005 by the Royal Commission for Corruption Control, a body formed after King Gyanendra Shah seized direct power...