Kathmandu, May 25 (ANI): Newly elected Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal took oath of office and secrecy on Monday.

President Dr Ram Baran Yadav administered the oath of office and secrecy to the newly elected Prime Minister amidst a ceremony at the Presidential residence in Shital Niwas this morning.

Vice-President Paramananda Jha, Constituent Assembly (CA) Chairman Subash Chandra Namwang, various political party leaders, chiefs of security bodies, heads of the government and international diplomatic representatives were present at the ceremony.

Madhav Kumar, a UML (Unified Marxist Leninist) nominee, was chosen ‘unopposed’ as the new Prime Minister of Nepal during a legislature-parliamentary session of the Constituent Assembly (CA) on Saturday. Fifty six-year-old Madhav Kumar, an alumni of Bihar’s Goenka College, received the support of around 360 legislators of 22 political parties, excluding 238 legislators from Maoists and two from the Communist Party of Nepal (United).

He was the Deputy Prime Minister in the Nepalese government during the CPN (UML) minority government as well as the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly. He campaigned for the solution of Nepal Civil War through talks and did not believe that mobilization of the army was the solution.

He was arrested in 2001 during a crackdown on anti-government protest. Following the palace massacre he called for Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to step down, though later joined forces with him to launch a campaign against King Gyanendra’s assumption of executive powers.

On April 12, 2008, Nepal resigned as General Secretary of the CPN (UML) after having lost the Kathmandu-2 seat to Maoist candidate Jhakku Prasad Subedi in the 2008 Constituent Assembly election. Nepal was also defeated in Rautahat-6 constituency by CPN(M) candidate Devendra Patel.

In June 2008, the CPN (UML) proposed that M. K. Nepal become the country’s first President, following the declaration of the country as a republic. (ANI)