Prachanda becomes Nepal’s new Prime Minister with support from former Premier Oli

Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Center) Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda has officially been appointed as the country’s next prime minister.

According to a statement issued by the Sheetal Niwas, the President’s Office, Prachanda has been elected in accordance with the Article 76 (2) of the Constitution.

Prachanda, 67 years old, will take oath of office and secrecy from President Bidya Devi Bhandari amidst a function to be held at the President’s Office at 4 pm on Monday.

Prachanda will lead a left-dominated coalition government backed by six parties namely the KP Sharma Oli-led Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), Rastriya Swatantra Party led by Ravi Lamichhane, pro-monarchy Rastriya Prajatantra Party, CK Raut-led Janamat Party and the Nagarik Unmukti Party.

Prachanda has now garnered a comfortable majority in the House of Representatives with 169 seats. One has to secure 138 seats in parliament to stake claim for the post of the prime minister.

This will be the third time Prachanda will lead the government after the former rebel party Maoist joined  peaceful politics back in 2007, quitting the ten-year-long insurgency that began in 1996. Earlier, Prachanda became the country’s prime minister in 2008 and 2016.

The fresh political development in the South Asian country comes after the five-party ruling alliance under the Nepali Congress failed to arrive at a consensus on who will be the next prime minister.

Both the Nepali Congress and the Maoist had staked claim for the post of the prime minister in their internal negotiations. The two parties were also divided over who should get the post of the country’s new president.

Prachanda and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba, who was the prime minister until Sunday, were the front runners to become the new prime minister.

Prachanda wanted to be at the  helm of the government at least for  two and half years in alliance with the Congress party. However, the Congress did not agree to the Maoist leader’s offer.

As negotiations failed to yield results, the Maoist party decided to break its partnership with the Congress party despite its repeated commitments to continue working with Deuba’s government over the past few weeks.

As the partners in the Congress-led ruling coalition failed to reach a consensus, CPN (UML) Chairman Oli invited Maoist Chairman Prachanda on Sunday and offered the post of prime minister.

The left-wing dominated coalition government emerged after a four-hour-long meeting between the six parties namely the KP Sharma Oli-led Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), Rastriya Swatantra Party led by Ravi Lamichhane, pro-monarchy Rastriya Prajatantra Party, CK Raut-led Janamat Party and the Nagarik Unmukti Party, on Sunday afternoon.

As per the agreement struck between the members of the new ruling coalition, the UML will take the post of the country’s prime minister and speaker.

Analysts say that this is a complete disregard to the people’s mandate that the five-party ruling alliance achieved through recent polls.

The Nepali Congress, which emerged the largest party, was a natural contender for the post of the prime minister.

The grand old party Nepali Congress, which went into polls in alliance with other four parties including the Maoist Center, has termed the Maoist decision to switch to the UML camp very opportunistic.

Despite being the largest party in parliament, the Congress party will stay in opposition as long as the new Maoist-UML dispensation remains in power.