Nepal PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal wins parliamentary vote of confidence, third in 14 months

Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Wednesday won a parliamentary vote of confidence, a week after he formed his third coalition in just 14 months to lead a government that is dominated by liberal communists.

The new cabinet led by Dahal is dominated by the liberal Nepal Communist Party (UML) and includes several other smaller groups. He had also headed a coalition with the UML briefly after the 2022 elections.

Earlier this month, Dahal changed allies saying he was not given a free hand.

Dahal, a former Maoist guerrilla leader from Nepal - sandwiched between China and India, formed a coalition Cabinet last year that included the Nepali Congress party and other smaller groups.

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Dahal wins vote of confidence

Dahal won 157 votes in the 275-member parliament, while 110 lawmakers voted against him. To win the trust of the house, 138 votes were required.

“I was let down several times … and was forced to form a new coalition cabinet, which is just a regular political process,” Dahal said in parliament on Wednesday, referring to the Nepali Congress, which is now the main opposition party.

Dahal is serving a third time as prime minister but did not complete the full five-year term during his previous stints.

Nepal has had 13 governments since it abolished its 239-year-old monarchy in 2008 and became a republic.

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After the split last week, Nepali Congress said prime minister Dahal had deceived it by dumping it from the cabinet without any notice.

Dahal led a decade-long insurgency from 1996 which caused 17,000 deaths before he joined mainstream politics under the 2006 peace deal overseen by the United Nations.

With inputs from Reuters