Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Monday won the vote of confidence in Parliament, PTI reported.

This was the fourth time that “Prachanda”, as Dahal is popularly known, has faced a confidence motion in the last 18 months.

The 69-year-old leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) secured 157 votes in the 275-member House of Representatives, the Lower House of Parliament. He needed at least 138 votes to prove his majority in the House.

Only 158 MPs participated in the voting after the Nepali Congress, which is the main Opposition party, boycotted the vote.

Prachanda faced a vote of confidence after the Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal withdrew support from his government following a split in the party on May 5, The Kathmandu Post reported. According to Nepal’s Constitution, the prime minister is required to take a vote of confidence if a coalition partner withdraws support.

Prachanda became Nepal’s prime minister in December 2022. In the general election in November 2022, the coalition that ruled Nepal at the time, led by Sher Bahadur Deuba’s Nepali Congress Party and supported by Prachanda’s party, failed to win a majority.

During negotiations to form a government, the alliance collapsed when Deuba rejected Prachanda’s demand for the prime minister’s position.

Prachanda then joined hands with rival KP Sharma Oli’s Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) to form the government in December. Oli let Prachanda become the prime minister.

However, within two months, the Prachanda-Oli alliance collapsed over a dispute about their presidential election candidate. In March 2023, Deuba stepped back in to support Prachanda’s government, renewing their partnership that had fallen apart in December. Prachanda remained the prime minister.

A year later, in March 2024, Prachanda severed ties with the Nepali Congress and again forged an alliance with Oli.

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