Behind Oli’s sly return to power

He may have tossed the idea of constitutional amendments with the intent of humouring New Delhi.

Much has been said and written about CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairperson Pushpa Kamal Dahal's fall and CPN-UML Chairperson KP Sharma Oli's rise to power over the past two weeks or so. That Oli would pull the rug out from under Dahal was almost certain in March itself when the two communist leaders plotted the Nepali Congress's ouster from the government—it was a matter of when, not if. Oli had been scheming all along to be back in Baluwatar. Nevertheless, the odds were not stacked in favour of him, the leader of the second-largest party. Dahal was using every trick in the book to cling to power, and extracting support from Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba, his traditional adversary, was not quite in immediate sight.