Newly appointed Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba refused to take oath demanding correction in his appointment letter which doesn’t mention the constitutional clause under which he has been appointed.
President Bidhya Devi Bhandari earlier in the day appointed Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba as the country’s PM, as per the Article 76 (5) of the Constitution.
Nepal’s Supreme Court on Monday directed President Bidya Devi Bhandari to appoint Opposition leader and Nepali Congress chief Sher Bahadur Deuba as prime minister by Tuesday and dismissed her “unconstitutional” move to dissolve the House of Representatives for a second time in five months that plunged the country into a major political crisis.
Deuba, 74, has served as the prime minister on four occasions; first from 1995 to 1997, then from 2001 to 2002, again from 2004 to 2005, and from 2017 to 2018.
Currently, he is the Leader of the Opposition in the House. Hours after the apex court’s verdict, Nepali Congress (NC) President Deuba held consultations with the alliance partners to form a new government.
The meeting was attended by leaders of the NC, CPN (Maoist Center), Upendra Yadav-led Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP), and Madhav Nepal-led faction of the UML.
President Bhandari had dissolved the 275-member lower house for the second time in five months on May 22 at the recommendation of Prime Minister Oli and announced snap elections on November 12 and November 19.
