Kathmandu, March 10 (IANS): Janata Samajbadi Party chairman Upendra Yadav on Sunday took oath as Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal.

Nawal Kishor Sah Sudi, who is also from the party, was named as minister for forest and environment, said a statement from the office of the president.

Nepal Vice President Ram Sahaya Prasad Yadav, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda', Speaker Devraj Ghimire, former Prime Minister and CPN (UML) Chair KP Sharma Oli and former Prime Minister and CPN (Unified Socialist) Chair Madhav Kumar Nepal were present on the occasion, The Himalyan reported.

Pushpa Kamal Dahal Dahal, chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Center) on Wednesday introduced 20 ministers into his cabinet by Wednesday after he severing alliance with the Nepali Congress and formed a new coalition with the CPN (Unified Marxist-Leninist) and two other parities two days earlier, Xinhua news agency reported.

He still can add three state ministers into the cabinet.

Dahal took office as the head of a coalition government comprising the CPN-UML in December 2022 as no single party won a majority of seats in the lower house in the general elections held in November that year.

The Nepali Congress joined the coalition months later following the exit of the CPN-UML.