KATHMANDU: Nepal’s Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli was sworn in as prime minister on Monday following his Communist Party forged a coalition government with the centre-left Nepali Congress, shifting power in the nation’s often-volatile parliament. Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, 72, chief of the second-largest political party in the parliament, the Communist Party of Nepal – Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), returns as PM for the fourth time.
In the Himalayan nation of around 30 million people, overshadowed by giant neighbours China and India, Oli earlier trod a fine balance between the foes, cordial to both but also reaching out to China to reduce Nepal’s dependency on India. The country’s President Ram Chandra Poudel administered the oath from the newly elected Prime Minister.
First elected as PM in 2015, he was reelected in 2018 with a rare majority government, and then reappointed temporarily in 2021. Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli’s predecessor and former coalition government partner, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, lost a vote of confidence on Friday, just 18 months following taking office.
Dahal, a former Maoist guerrilla leader better known by his nom de guerre Prachanda (“The Fierce One”), was forced to quit following Oli’s party withdrew its support. Oli instead forged an agreement with Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress. He has pledged to yield the post to the former five-time prime minister Deuba, 78, later in the parliamentary term.
Nepal’s upcoming general elections will be held in 2027. The nation became a federal republic in 2008 after a decade-long civil conflict and a peace agreement that saw the Maoists brought into government and the abolition of the monarchy. Since then, a revolving door of aged prime ministers and a culture of horse-trading have also fuelled public perceptions that the government has no ideas about the pressing problems of the country.
Who is Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli?
He was born in 1952 in Tehrathum district, Nepal close to the eastern border with India. Drawn into covert communist politics as a teen, Oli was apprehended in 1973 aged 21 for campaigning to revolt against the monarchy. He was sent to jail for 14 years, four of which he claimed were in solitary confinement, a period when he studied and wrote poetry, penning his verses on cigarette boxes when he could not access paper. Following his release in 1987, he joined the CPN-UML and rose through the party ranks, winning polls to parliament.
