Nepal’s communist prime minister takes power for fourth time

Nepal’s Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli was sworn in as prime minister on Monday after his Communist Party forged a coalition government with the centre-left Nepali Congress, shifting power in the country’s often-volatile parliament.

Oli, 72, chief of the second-largest party in the parliament, the Communist Party of Nepal – Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), returns as prime minister for the fourth time.

In the Himalayan republic of about 30 million people, overshadowed by giant neighbours India and China, Oli previously trod a fine balance between the rivals, cordial to both but reaching out to Beijing to decrease Nepal’s dependency on New Delhi.

“I, KP Sharma Oli, in the name of the country and people, pledge that I will be loyal to the constitution … and fulfil my duty as the prime minister,” Oli said, as President Ram Chandra Poudel administered the oath of office.

First elected as prime minister in 2015, he was reelected in 2018 with a rare majority government, and then reappointed briefly in 2021.

His predecessor and former coalition government ally, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, lost a vote of confidence on Friday, barely 18 months after taking office.

Dahal, a former Maoist guerilla commander better known by his nom de guerre Prachanda (“The Fierce One”), was forced to step down after Oli’s party withdrew its support.

Oli instead forged a deal with Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress.

He has promised to yield the post to the former five-time prime minister Deuba, 78, later in the parliamentary term.

Nepal’s next general elections are due in 2027.

The country became a federal republic in 2008 after a decade-long civil war and a peace deal that saw the Maoists brought into government and the abolition of the monarchy.

Since then, a