Kathmandu, Nepal

Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' on Wednesday (Mar 13) won a vote of confidence in Parliament amid political instability in the country 

Advertisment

The 69-year-old is a former guerilla leader from the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), which is the third largest party in the House of Representatives. 

He received 157 votes in the 275-member House. The PM needed at least 138 votes to win the trust motion. 

Also read: Indian Elections 2024: Nitin Gadkari, Anurag Thakur, Piyush Goyal, 69 others named in second BJP list 

Advertisment

The vote comes days after the Maoist leader dumped the Nepali Congress, which forced Dahal to form his third coalition in just over a year. 

He is now going to head a government which is dominated by the liberal communists — the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist). 

The new cabinet 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. 

Advertisment

Also read: Global trade disrupted by Red Sea attacks and Panama Canal drought: IMF 

Parliament Speaker Dev Raj Ghimire said Dahal won 157 votes against the 138 required in the 275-member parliament, while 110 lawmakers voted against him. 

After the vote, Dahal said in parliament, "I was let down several times ... and was forced to form a new coalition cabinet, which is just a regular political process." He was referring to the Nepali Congress, which is now the main opposition party. 

Previously, Dahal had gone for the floor test on January 10, 2023, and had received 268 votes then. 

(With inputs from agencies)