Kathmandu : CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' has been elected as the 39th Prime Minister of the country, securing a clear majority in the Legislature-Parliament on Wednesday. It is Prachanda’s second innings as the PM.

Speaker Onsari Gharti Magar announced that Prachanda was elected as a Prime Minister as he secured 363 votes out of 573 votes cast, while 210 lawmakers voted against him.

Prachanda was backed by the largest party in the House, Nepali Congress, constituents of the United Democratic Madhesi Front and the Federal Alliance and some other fringe parties. The CPN-UML and Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal lawmakers voted against Prachanda.

Total 298 votes were needed for Prachanda to be elected the PM from the existing 595 members of the House.

It would be the second stint of the Maoist leader as the Prime Minister as he had led the government after the first Constituent Assembly elections, from August 18, 2008 to May 25, 2009.

He had resigned on May 4, 2009 after the then President Ram Baran Yadav turned down the Cabinet decision to remove the then army chief Rookmangud Katawal and ordered Katawal to stay put in the office.

He has also become the only communist to be elected Prime Minister twice. The other five communist prime ministers had never made a comeback to Baluwatar.

NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba had proposed Prachanda as new Prime Minister.

CPN (Maoist Center) leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Federal Socialist Forum Nepal (FSFN) Chairman Upendra Yadav, Madhesi People's Right Forum Democratic (MPRF-D) chief whip Yogendra Chaudhary, Parshuram Tamang of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), and Sarvendranath Shukla of the Tarai-Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP) had seconded the proposal.

Similarly, Laxman Lal Karna of Sadbhawana, Jayadev Joshi of CPN (Unified), Ganga Chaudhari of Tharuhat Tarai Party Nepal and eight other lawmakers in parliament had seconded Prachanda.