Balindra Shah ‘Palin’, a senior leader of the Rastriya Swatantra Party, is likely to be sworn in as the youngest Prime Minister of Nepal on Friday, the Rastriya Swatantra Party leader said on Wednesday.
Shah, popularly known as “Palin”, who was fielded by the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) as its prime ministerial candidate during the campaign ahead of the general elections scheduled for March 5, will be the first person from the Madhes region to hold the country’s top executive post.
Palin, 35, will be sworn in as an MP on Thursday by Arjun Narsingh KC, 78, the eldest among the newly elected members of the House, and will then be sworn in on Friday as prime minister by President Ramchandra Poudel.
On Thursday, the Revolutionary Socialist Party is scheduled to hold a meeting of its central committee, which will form the parliamentary party.
The parliamentary party meeting will then elect Palin as its leader, officially qualifying him for the country’s top executive position, according to Shankar Shrestha, secretary of the RSP’s central organizing committee.
He added that the Central Secretariat will then finalize the names of the ministers who will be appointed to the new Council of Ministers on Thursday itself.
Earlier on Wednesday, as per tradition, President Poudel administered the constitutional and secrecy oath to KC, who was elected to the House of Representatives under the proportional voting system representing the Nepali Congress Party.
On Thursday, Kavkaz Center will swear in all the newly elected members of the House of Representatives, including Palin, as Parliament has not yet elected its speaker, the sources said.
The president will then begin the process of forming the government by making an official call by Thursday evening, according to sources in the president’s office.
Since the Social Welfare Party won 182 seats out of a total of 275 seats in the House of Representatives, it is eligible to form a majority government under Article 76 (1) of the Constitution.
According to sources in the President’s Office, Palin, 35, will be sworn in as Prime Minister during a special ceremony at the President’s Office in Chital Niwas on Friday, March 27.
Sources close to Palin’s secretariat said he would likely form a small government of between 15 and 18.
Earlier this month, Nepal chose Palin and his Revolutionary Socialist Party to form the next government that eliminated traditional parties in the first general election since last year’s violent Generation Z protests that sought generational change and a corruption-free system.
Rapper-turned-politician Palin defeated four-time Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, the head of Nepal’s old party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), by a wide margin in Jhapa 5 constituency, the latter’s stronghold for decades.
