Pushpa Kamal Dahal Appointed New Nepal PM With Backing From KP Sharma Oli

This comes after Dahal, popularly known as 'Prachanda', broke ties with the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led Nepali Congress.

Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda'.

(Photo: Twitter/Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda) 

Former Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' is set to take on the post of PM once again after several opposition parties extended support to the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Centre chairman in a dramatic turn of events on Sunday, 25 December.

This comes after a key meeting between the KP Sharma Oli-led CPN-UML, CPN-Maoist Centre, Rastriya Swatantra Party, and other Opposition parties, in which they extended their support to Prachanda, a former Maoist guerilla, for the top post.

As per the agreement reached in the meeting, Prachanda and Oli will lead the new government on a rotational basis, news agency PTI reported.

The coalition government will have the backing of 165 lawmakers in the 275-member House of Representatives.

"As the largest party the Nepali Congress failed to form a government under its leadership as per Article 76(2) of the Constitution within the president's deadline. Now, the CPN-UML has taken the initiative to form the new government under the leadership of Prachanda with the support of 165 lawmakers," CPN-UML general secretary Shankar Pokharel said.

Earlier on Sunday, Prachanda walked out of an alliance led by the Nepali Congress, after the current PM Sher Bahadur Deuba rejected his demand to become the prime minister in the first half of the government's tenure.

The fallout came despite Deuba and Prachanda having reached an agreement earlier to form the government and rotate the post of PM among themselves.

(With inputs from PTI.)