Nepal, March 11 -- Since Pushpa Kamal Dahal became Prime Minister on December 26, 2022, he changed his political bedfellows on March 4 for the third time. He had withdrawn from the electoral alliance his party, the Maoist Centre, had formed with the Nepali Congress before the parliamentary polls held on November 20, 2022, to form a government with the support of the CPN-UML. Within six weeks, he deserted the UML to form another coalition, mainly with the support of the Congress and other fringe parties. After a year, as a surprise, Dahal has chosen to lean on the UML again, leaving the Congress in a lurch.

The Maoist Centre, with only 32 out of 275 (11.6 percent) seats in the House of Representatives, is fully exploiting the hung parliam...