Nepal’s Prime Minister Khadga Oli resigned on Sunday minutes before a no confidence vote was passed in the parliament.
Oli resigned following the withdrawal of support Unified Maoist, a key party from the coalition government.
The prime minister, who had been in office for nine months, told parliament in a speech before the scheduled vote that he had handed in his resignation to President Bidhya Bhandari.
He said he was “broken-hearted’’.
Bhandari accepted his resignation and directed Oli’s government to function as a caretaker until a new administration was in place.
However, the timeline for that is unclear as the Himalayan country is once again thrown into political turmoil.
The motion against the government was registered last week and was brought by coalition partner, Unified Maoist, and the key opposition party, Nepali Congress.
The opposition said that Oli should resign because he no longer had a majority after Unified Maoist pulled out of the government.
Unified Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal was expected to seek the support of the Nepali Congress and other parties to form a new coalition government.
Parliamentarians from Nepali Congress earlier said that the government needed to step down because it had proved itself to be “inept’’.
The government has shown significant delays in dealing with the reconstruction process in the aftermath of earthquakes in the Himalayan country and issues related to implementing its new constitution.
Oli became prime minister in October 2015, after gaining a two-thirds majority with Maoist support.
The government also came under fire for being unable to address the demands of the Madheshi community in the south, who waged a month of protests against the new constitution in 2015 and imposed a border blockade.
At least 50 people were killed in the protests.
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