Kathmandu, July 15 : K. P. Sharma Oli, Chairman of Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) (CPN-UML), on Monday, was inaugurated as Nepal's new Prime Minister.

President Ram Chandra Poudel administered the oath of office to 72-year-old Oli. This is the fourth time for him to assume the premiership.

"The President administered the oath to Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli along with 21 ministers," Kiran Pokharel, press advisor to the President, told Xinhua.

Arzu Rana Deuba, wife of Nepali Congress President and former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, becomes the Foreign Minister.

The 25-member Cabinet is short of three state ministers.

Oli becomes the head of a four-party coalition government under a deal reached with Nepali Congress on the night of July 1.

Pushpa Kamal Dahal lost the mandate to remain in power on Friday, after losing a vote of confidence in the House of Representatives, as the CPN-UML quit and withdrew support to his coalition, and Oli was named the Prime Minister on Sunday evening.

As the largest parties in the lower house, Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML have agreed to take the premiership in turn until the next general election in 2027.

No single party won a majority of seats in the lower house in the general election held in November 2022 in the South Asian country.

/IANS