AFP :
Tough-talking Nepali leader Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli has spent a lifetime in communist politics, becoming prime minister for a fourth time Sunday in the Himalayan republic’s revolving-door leadership.
The often outspoken 72-year-old, head of the Communist Party of Nepal – Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), formed a government with the backing of the centre-left Nepali Congress.
In the Himalayan republic of some 30 million people, overshadowed by giant neighbours India and China, Oli previously trod a fine balance between the rivals, cordial to both but reaching out to Beijing to decrease Nepal’s dependence on New Delhi.
First elected as prime minister in 2015, he was re-elected in 2018 and reappointed briefly in 2021 in Nepal’s often turbulent parliament.