Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, chairman of the CPN-Maoist Centre, was on Sunday appointed as the new Prime Minister of Nepal for the third time. According to a statement issued by the President’s Office, he has been appointed as the Prime Minister of Nepal in accordance with Article 76 Clause 2 of the Constitution.
President Bidya Devi Bhandari called upon any member of the House of Representatives to submit a claim to the office of Prime Minister, who can secure a majority of the support of two or more parties as stipulated in Article 76 Clause 2 of the Constitution.
Prachanda, 68, submitted the claim before the deadline given by the President at 5 pm on Sunday. According to the President’s Office, the swearing-in ceremony of the newly appointed Prime Minister will take place on Monday at 4 pm.
Prachanda CPN-UML president KP Sharma Oli, Rashtriya Swatantra Party (RSP) president Ravi Lamichhane, Rashtriya Prajatantra Party chief Rajendra Lingden along with other top leaders first proposed to appoint him as the new prime minister President went to office. Said.
Prachanda has the support of 165 MPs in the 275-member House of Representatives, including 78 for CPN-UML, 32 for CPN-MC, 20 for RSP, 14 for RPP, 12 for JSP, 6 for Janmat and 3 for Civil Immunity Party. Received.
Born on 11 December 1954 at Dhikurpokhari in Kaski district near Pokhara, Prachanda remained underground for nearly 13 years. He joined mainstream politics when the CPN-Maoist adopted peaceful politics, ending a decades-long armed insurgency.
He led a decade-long armed conflict from 1996 to 2006 that finally ended with the signing of a comprehensive peace accord in November 2006.
Earlier, an important meeting was held at the residence of former Prime Minister Oli where the CPN-Maoist Center and other smaller parties agreed to form the government under the leadership of ‘Prachanda’.
An understanding has been reached between Prachanda and Oli to lead the government on rotation basis and Oli has agreed to make Prachanda the Prime Minister at the first opportunity as per his demand.
“The Nepali Congress as the single largest party failed to form a government under its leadership as per Article 76(2) of the Constitution within the time limit of the President. Now the CPN-UML has taken the initiative to form a new government under the leadership of Prachanda with the support of 165 MPs.
Earlier in the day, Prachanda walked out of the five-party coalition led by the Nepali Congress after Prime Minister and Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba rejected his bid to become prime minister in the first round.
Deuba and Prachanda had earlier reached a tacit understanding to head the new government by turns.
Maoist sources said that during talks with Prachanda at the PM House on Sunday morning, the Nepali Congress had staked claim for both the key posts of President and Prime Minister, which was rejected by Prachanda, resulting in failure of the talks.
The NC offered the post of president to the Maoist party, which was rejected by Prachanda.
Shah told PTI earlier in the day, “The alliance has broken down due to failure of last-minute talks between Deuba and Prachanda.”
After talks with Prime Minister Deuba failed, Prachanda arrived at the private residence of CPN-UML chairman Oli to seek support to become prime minister. Leaders of other small parties also joined them.
Nepali Congress is the largest party in the House of Representatives with 89 seats while CPN-UML and CPN-MC have 78 and 32 seats respectively.
No party has the 138 seats needed to form a government in the 275-member House of Representatives.
In the House, the CPN (Unified Socialist) has 10 seats, the Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (LSP) has four, and the Rashtriya Janamorcha and the Nepal Workers and Peasants’ Party have one seat each.
The lower house consists of five independent members.