Kathmandu, August, 3, 2016: CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has been elected as the 39th Prime Minister of the country, securing a clear majority in the Legislature-Parliament on Wednesday. It is Dahal’s second innings as the PM.
Dahal, who was the only candidate for Prime Minister, secured 363 votes out of 573 votes cast, while 210 lawmakers voted against him, Speaker Onsari Gharti Magar announced at the parliament meeting.
He is backed by 16 political parties including the single largest party in Parliament, the Nepali Congress (NC), and an independent lawmaker. The CPN-UML and Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal lawmakers voted against Dahal.
NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba had proposed Dahal as new Prime Minister.
CPN (Maoist Center) leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Federal Socialist Forum Nepal (FSFN) Chairman Upendra Yadav, Madhesi People’s Right Forum Democratic (MPRF-D) chief whip Yogendra Chaudhary, Parshuram Tamang of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), and Sarvendranath Shukla of the Tarai-Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP) had seconded the proposal.
Similarly, Laxman Lal Karna of Sadbhawana, Jayadev Joshi of CPN (Unified), Ganga Chaudhari of Tharuhat Tarai Party Nepal and eight other lawmakers in parliament had seconded Dahal.
Dahal has become the leader to head the government twice since the country became a republic. He has also become the only communist to be elected Prime Minister twice. The other five communist prime ministers had never made a comeback to Baluwatar.
Dahal was Prime Minister for the first time in August 2008 after his party emerged as the single largest political party in the Constituent Assembly (CA) election in the same year.
 Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has been elected as the 39th Prime Minister of the country, securing a clear majority in the Legislature-Parliament on Wednesday. It is Dahal’s second innings as the PM.){kind=link}