by Our Foreign Desk

NEPAL’S new Marxist prime minister appointed two leaders of protests against the republican constitution as his deputies yesterday.

Communist Party of Nepal — Unified Marxist–Leninist (CPN-UML) chairman Khadga Prasad Oli was sworn in as prime minister yesterday after his election by the constituent assembly on Sunday.

In one of his first acts in office, Mr Oli appointed Madhesi People’s Rights Forum leader Bijaya Gachhadar and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) president Kamal Thapa as joint deputy prime ministers.

The royalist RPP party has led violent protests against the country’s two-week-old constitution, which defines the country as a secular republic, saying that it should be a Hindu state.

Mr Thapa served as home minister under King Gyanendra until his overthrow in 2006 following a 10-year guerilla war by the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).

The MPRF also opposes the constitution as it splits the ethnic Madesh region between two of the seven new states.

Mr Gachhadar said that he joined the government to help resolve the protests in southern Nepal.

However, the larger United Democratic Madhesi Front has vowed to continue protests on the border with India.

India has used the unrest as a pretext to block fuel shipments into the country, claiming that lorry drivers are at risk.

Nepal’s government has mooted buying fuel from northern neighbour China but it would have to be flown in as mountain roads damaged in April’s earthquake have not yet been repaired.