Nepal’s new Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, popularly called ‘Prachanda’, sent out a tweet on Monday to commemorate the birth anniversary of former Chinese President Mao Zedong.
It came a day after the Communist politician was appointed the landlocked Himalayan nation’s leader for the third time.
"I extend my best wishes to Comrade Mao Zedong, the revered leader of the international proletariat, on his 130th birth anniversary," the tweet in Nepalese reads.
A screenshot of a tweet posted by Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal
© Photo : Twitter/ Comrade Prachanda
Prachanda, a former guerrilla leader and the head of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), staked claim to form the country’s new government before President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Sunday evening, per an official statement.
He has claimed the support of 169 lawmakers in Nepal’s 275-member House of Representatives, after the elections last month threw a hung mandate.
The previously ruling Nepali Congress, led by former PM Sher Bahadur Deuba, emerged as the largest party in the election but fell short of a majority in the House.
Before Prachanda’s visit to the President on Sunday, Deuba was the frontrunner for the PM’s post.
The 68-year-old politician will lead a ragtag political coalition comprising the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), the Rashtriya Sawantantra Party (RSP), the pro-monarchy Rashtriya Prajatantra Party, the Nagarik Unmukti Party, the Janata Samajawadi Party and the Janamat Party.
Under the power-sharing arrangement, Prachanda will lead the government in the first half of the five-year tenure till 2025, after which he would pave the way for the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) to take over the reigns of power.
The Communist Party of Nepal (UML) is headed by another former prime minister, Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, an ideologically ally of Prachanda albeit with past differences over the leadership of the country’s left movement.
After years of left-wing insurgency, Nepal abolished its Hindu monarchy in 2008 and introduced a new Constitution in 2015.
India & China's Contest for Nepal
Kathmandu’s growing economic and political ties with China have coincided with growing demands among the leftist parties to revamp the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship between India and Nepal after the country’s new Constitution came into effect in 2015.
The 1950 treaty forms the bedrock of ties between the two nations.
In 2020, a territorial dispute between India and Nepal over the ownership of three border territories — Lipulekh , Kalapani and Limpiyadhura, escalated into a diplomatic row.
It occurred after Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a new road to the Hindu holy site of Kailash Mansarovar (in China’s Tibet Autonomous region) that passes through the disputed territories. Amid protests by New Delhi, the Nepalese government, then headed by Oli, tabled and cleared the revised map in the Parliament.
While India has traditionally been Nepal’s biggest trade and defense partner, Beijing has in recent years challenged India’s pre-eminent role in Nepalese politics:
In 2019, Beijing emerged as the top investor in Nepal, a position previously held by New Delhi.
Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a visit to Nepal in 2019, the first Chinese leader to do so in around two decades.
The two countries are also cooperating in the construction of the Trans-Himalayan Multi-Dimensional Connectivity Network, part of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Prachanda is known to be a backer of revision of the “framework” of India-Nepal relations based on the new political and economic realities and has advocated the resolution of territorial disputes between the two countries.