KATHMANDU: CPN-UML Chairman K.P. Sharma Oli was on Thursday sworn in as the 41st Prime Minister of Nepal, 69 days after the elections of the Federal and Provincial Assemblies.
President Bidya Devi Bhandari administrated the oath of office to Oli at a ceremony organised at the presidential residence.
Following his swearing in, Oli formed a small Cabinet inducting two ministers from his Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist).
Lal Babu Pandit was appointed the Minister for Population and Environment and Thammaya Thapa was appointed the Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare.
As widely expected, the CPN (Maoist Centre) led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda", which had extended support to Oli to form the government in the Himalayan country, did not send the ministers in the Cabinet for now.
This is the second time Oli has been appointed to the top post. He was the Prime Minister from October 11, 2015 to August 4, 2016.
He had to step down from the prime-ministerial post after the CPN (Maoist Centre) withdrew its support to his government. Now, he has reached to the post following the support from the same party.
Ahead of Oli's appointment, outgoing Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, submitted his resignation after the Election Commission submitted the final results of the elections held in December to the President. Deuba's Nepali Congress finished third in the race.
Oli claimed the top executive post with the support of the Left alliance which had garnered a majority victory in the elections held in two phases on November 26 and December 7.
Prachanda's Maoist Centre and UML are set to merge soon.