Nepal PM Bahadur Deuba resigns, KP Oli to succeed

An alliance of left parties — the CPN-UML and the CPM-Maoist Centre — has won a total of 116 seats.

Sher Bahadur Deuba resigned as Nepal Prime Minister on Thursday after a brief stint, Khadga Prasad Oli to succeed him. Deuba handed power to a new government after completing the due constitutional process. Deuba-led Nepali Congress lost the recent polls to provincial assemblies and parliament in 2017.

CPN-UML chairperson K P Sharma Oli became Prime Minister for the second time over two months after his Left alliance routed the ruling Nepali Congress in the country's historic parliamentary and local polls. President Bidhya Devi Bhandari appointed 65-year-old Oli as the country's 41st prime minister.

Earlier, former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had addressed the nation and submitted his resignation to the president. Deuba was elected as the 40th Prime Minister on June 6 with the support from CPN (Maoist Centre) which is now a part of Left alliance and opting for the merger with CPN-UML.

In the parliamentary elections, the Deuba-led Nepali Congress (NC) stood third - behind the CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre) - in the historic parliamentary and provincial assembly polls by winning just 23 seats out of a total 165 seats under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system.

An alliance of left parties - the CPN-UML and the CPM-Maoist Centre - has won a total of 116 seats.

The NC had emerged as the largest party in the 2013 Constituent Assembly elections by winning 105 seats under the FPTP.

(With agency inputs)