The Parliamentary Party leader of the Nepali Congress (NC), Kamal Bahadur Shah, was appointed the Chief Minister of Sudurpashchim Province on Thursday after former CM Rajendra Singh Rawal of the CPN-UML could not secure vote of confidence in the provincial assembly.

Sudurpaschim Provincial Head Devraj Joshi appointed Shah as the new Chief Minister shortly after Rawal tendered his resignation from the post as Rawal couldn’t secure a confidence vote after one of the coalition partners, the Nagarik Unmukti Party, refused to back him.

The newly-appointed Chief Minister Shah needs to take a vote of confidence from the provincial assembly within a month.

In the Sudurpaschim Province with 53 lawmakers, Nepali Congress has 19 members, the Unified Socialist 4, while the UML has 10, the Maoist Centre 11, the Nagarik Unmukti Party 7, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party has 1 member and one independent lawmaker.

Rawal was appointed as the Chief Minister after garnering the support of 29 members in the provincial assembly on January 11.