Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba has become the Prime Minister of Nepal for the fifth time. Deuba, 75, took oath as the Prime Minister on Tuesday evening at the office of President Bidya Devi Bhandari. According to Nepali media, President Bidya Devi Bhandari has appointed him as the Prime Minister under Article 76(5) of the Constitution.
A day earlier, Nepal's Supreme Court quashed former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's decision to dissolve the House of Representatives (Parliament) on May 21 and ordered the appointment of Deuba as the Prime Minister of Nepal. A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Cholendra Shamsher Rana had said that Oli's claim to the post of prime minister was unconstitutional.
The Constitution Bench also criticized the role of President Bidya Devi Bhandari, who in May denied Deuba an opportunity to prove his majority in Parliament. On Tuesday, President Bhandari's personal secretary Bhesh Raj Adhikari told the press that "in accordance with the decision given by the Supreme Court, President Vidya Devi Bhandari has appointed Deuba as the Prime Minister of Nepal."
Experts say that Deuba's immediate task will be to bring political stability in Nepal. It has been told that Deuba's coalition government includes Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal's Prachanda Party and Janata Samajwadi Party, including Nepali Congress. Janata Samajwadi Party is a party of former Maoists and Madhesi leaders.
According to Nepali media, Deuba took the oath with a small cabinet on Tuesday. In his government, Gyanendra Karki has been made Law Minister and Bal Krishna Khand as Home Minister. On the other hand, Janardan Sharma has been given the command of the Finance Ministry and Pampa Bhusal has been given the command of Power and Irrigation Ministry. The ministries assigned to Bhusal are considered to be of great importance in Nepal.
Sher Bahadur Deuba has been the Prime Minister of Nepal four times before. He was the Prime Minister of Nepal for the first time from September 1995 to March 1997, for the second time from July 2001 to October 2002, for the third time from June 2004 to February 2005 and for the fourth time from June 2017 to February 2018.
It has been told that under the constitutional provision, after his appointment as the Prime Minister, Deuba will have to seek a vote of confidence in the House within 30 days.
In his first foreign visit after becoming Prime Minister in June 2017, Deuba visited India in August 2017 and held bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Deuba has previously made three visits to India as Prime Minister in 1996, 2004 and 2005.
Born on 13 June 1946 in a remote village in the Dadeldhura district of western Nepal, Sher Bahadur Deuba started his political career as a student leader. He was a founding member and president of the Nepal Students' Union, the student political wing of the Nepali Congress, from 1971 to 1980.
Deuba did a bachelor's in law and a master's in political science. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi in November 2016 for his contribution to strengthening democracy.
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