Nepal PM Sher Bahadur Deuba Resigns, KP Oli to Takeover
The resignation will now pave way for the left alliance to form the new government in the country. Deuba had, however, maintained that he would step down soon after the electoral processes of the province, HoR and National Assembly.
Katmandu, February 15: After facing a debacle for about two months in recently held elections of the Central Parliament and Provincial Assemblies in Nepal, Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Thursday resigned from his post. With Deuba's resignation, Khadga Prasad Oli is all set to come into power as the new Prime Minister of Nepal.
The resignation will now pave way for the left alliance to form the new government in Nepal. Deuba’s resignation comes in the wake of the UML alleging that he was unnecessarily prolonging his stay in the government over ambiguous constitutional provisions. Deuba had, however, maintained that he would step down soon after the electoral processes of province, HoR and National Assembly.
As per reports, a standing committee meeting of the UML on Wednesday decided to field the party's Chairman K P Sharma Oli as the new prime minister on behalf of the left alliance comprising the UML and the Maoist Center. Oli served as the 38th Prime Minister of Nepal from 11 October 2015 to 3 August 2016. A member of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist), he was the second Prime Minister under the newly adopted Constitution of Nepal.
Deuba-led Nepali Congress lost the recent polls to provincial assemblies and parliament in 2017. 70-year-old Deuba replaced Prachanda, a former rebel commander, as prime minister after a parliamentary vote. He served as the prime minister of Nepal from 1995 to 1997, 2001 to 2002, and from 2004 to 2005. He was later sacked by the then King Gyanendra Shah in 2005 over failure to hold elections and bring Maoist rebels to a roundtable negotiation.
It must be noted that the Deuba-led Nepali Congress (NC) stood third in the historic parliamentary and provincial assembly polls. The NC was behind the CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre), winning just 23 seats out of a total 165 seats under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system.
In January, 16 ministers belonging to Nepal's CPN (MC) resigned from the cabinet following a decision by the ruling party. As per reports by PTI, the move came nearly 3 months after Deuba stripped of their portfolios after the party forged an electoral alliance with the CPN-UML in the recently held federal and provincial assembly elections. Reports state that former health minister Girirajmani Pokharel submitted the resignation of all the ministers -- 10 union and six ministers of state -- from the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 15, 2018 12:01 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).