Kathmandu, Aug. 5 -- Bagmati Province Head Deepak Prasad Devkota on Tuesday appointed Indra Bahadur Baniya as the new chief minister. Earlier, Baniya had submitted his claim to the post with the backing of 64 provincial lawmakers.

Baniya, who also chairs the Nepali Congress's Bagmati province committee, becomes the sixth person to lead the provincial government. He replaces Bahadur Singh Lama, who stepped down on Sunday amid growing political pressure and waning support within his own party.

A simple majority of 56 seats is needed to form a government in the 110-member provincial assembly. Baniya comfortably surpasses that figure with the support of 37 members from the Nepali Congress members and 27 from the CPN-UML.

His road to leader...