Veteran Communist leader KP Oli was sworn in as Nepal’s 38th Prime Minister, a day after he was elected in Parliament with support from smaller parties, even as the country is grappling with political unrest over the new Constitution.
The 63-year-old was administered the oath of office and secrecy by President Ram Baran Yadav at his official residence in Kathmandu.
Prime Minister Oli also has formed a small cabinet incorporating two Deputy Prime Ministers and five ministers as he chaired his first cabinet meeting in Kathmandu.
Bijay Kumar Gachhadar and Kamal Thapa were sworn in as Deputy Prime Ministers. The two are said to have been rewarded for their support to Oli in Parliament.
Gachhadar, the president of Madhesi People’s Rights Forum Democratic, a key Madhesi party, has been allocated with the portfolio of Physical Planning and Transport while Thapa, president of Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal received the Foreign Affairs portfolio.
The five other ministers included in Oli’s cabinet are Agni Kharel, Satya Narayan Mandal, Som Pandey, Haribol Gajurel and Ram Kumar Subba.
Oli faces an immediate challenge of protests and blockade of a key border trade point with India over the country’s new Constitution.
In voting held in Parliament, Communist Party of Nepal – Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) chairman Oli garnered 338 votes, 39 more than the 299 that he needed to be elected as prime minister. Koirala could secure only 249 votes. A total of 587 members cast their votes. Lawmakers were not allowed to stay neutral during the voting.
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