CPN-Maoist (Centre) chairperson Dahal elected PM; Dahal to be sworn in on Thursday

Kathmandu / Aug 3: Chairperson of CPN (Maoist Center) Pushpa Kamal Dahal has been elected as the 39th Prime Minister of the country in the election held in the parliament on Wednesday.

Dahal, who was the only candidate for Prime Minister, secured 363 votes out of 573 votes cast, while 210 lawmakers voted against him, Speaker Onsari Gharti Magar announced at the parliament meeting.

He is backed by 16 political parties including the single largest party in Parliament, the Nepali Congress (NC), and an independent lawmaker. The CPN-UML and Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal lawmakers voted against Dahal.

Dahal has become the leader to head the government twice since the country became a republic. He has also become the only communist to be elected Prime Minister twice. The other five communist prime ministers had never made a comeback to Baluwatar.

Dahal was Prime Minister for the first time in August 2008 after his party emerged as the single largest political party in the Constituent Assembly (CA) election in the same year.

Meanwhile, Dahal has been scheduled to take oath of office and secrecy at 3 pm on Thursday. The Office of the President has been already informed on the oath taking ceremony scheduled for Thursday. Dahal will lay wreaths at the memorials located in different areas of the capital before the oath taking ceremony.

Profile of Pushpa Kamal Dahal

Born on December 11, 1954 in Dhikurpokhari VDC-2 of Kaski district, CPN Maoist Centre Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal had served as the Prime Minister of the nation for the first time for around nine months in from August 2008 to May 2009.

Dahal, who later migrated to Shivanagar VDC in Bharatpur of Chitwan from his birthplace, tied the conjugal knot with Sita Paudel in 1969.

He had worked as a teacher before joining politics. He was elected the central member of the CPN Masal in 1984 through the fifth General Convention of the party, politburo member in 1985, and the General Secretary in 1989.

Dahal was elected the General Secretary of the CPN United Centre, which later changed into CPN Maoist, in 1991.

He had led the Maoist party during the decade-long armed struggle from 1996 to 2006. In the first Constituent Assembly elections in 2008, he had won the parliamentarian berth for the first time from Kathmandu-10. He represents Siraha-5 in the second CA, which is now working as the Parliament after promulgation of the Constitution in September last year, since 2013 November.