PRAGOTI

After months of petty mindedness, crass oneupmanship and the impossibility of forming a national consensus government, a Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) leader has been elected to the role of prime ministership in Nepal in a two round process. UML chairman Jhalanath Khanal was supported by the Maoists in his bid to become the premier, marking an end to a tortuous process of electing a new prime minister after UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned as part of a three point formula worked out to extend the deadline for writing the Constitution by the Constituent Assembly. In many ways, a UML leader has been re-elected to power, but with a difference.

A crisis has been precipitated in the republic of Nepal. The prime minister Pushpa Kumar "Prachanda" Dahal of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has resigned, following presidential actions rejecting a cabinet decision to remove the Chief of Army Staff, Rukmangad Katuwal from his post. Earlier, the government was reduced to a minority after withdrawal of support from the coalition partner Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist). This article will strive to comment on the developments and put things in perspective.