Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. The Maoist party, the third largest in the Nepali parliament after Nepali Congress and Oli’s Communist Party of Nepal – Unified Marxist–Leninist (CPN – UML), said that the utility of the Oli government had ended and it would now be looking to form a government under Dahal’s leadership.Oli and allow him to bring the annual budget at the end of May. After that, Dahal would become prime minister of the same communist coalition. The new UML-Maoist agreement also says every effort will be made to expand the coalition into a ‘national consensus government’ and that there will be a renewed push for dialogue on federalism with the protesting Madhesi parties. The Maoist party’s volte-face represents a huge symbolic victory for Oli. First, it will allow him a more graceful exit, compared to being forced out through a no-confidence motion. Second, he can now claim that he has once again thwarted ‘Indian designs’ to destabilise Nepal. Already, people in Kathmandu are interpreting May 5 developments as another slap on the face of the ‘meddlesome Indians’ – just as Oli would have liked it. The Maoist chairman was enthused as the Nepali Congress had committed support for his leadership. With the support of Congress, Dahal would be able to easily marshal a comfortable majority in the 601-member parliament. But by the morning of May 5, Dahal had completely changed his mind. Instead of bringing a motion of no-confidence against the prime minister, as was planned only a day before, the party now said it would continue to support
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