- published: 03 Feb 2016
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Jhala Nath Khanal (Nepali: झलनाथ खनाल Listen (help·info); born 20 May 1950) was the 34th Prime Minister of Nepal having taken office in February 2011. He holds the positions of Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) (CPN (UML)) and Leader of the Constituent Assembly Parliamentary Party of the CPN (UML).
Born in Sakhejung in the Ilam District, Khanal was a member of the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist), and was its General Secretary from 1982 to 1986; later, he was a member of the CPN (UML). Khanal served for a time as Minister of Information and Communication in the 1997 coalition government.
Khanal won the seat of the Ilam-1 constituency in the 2008 Constituent Assembly election. He led the CPN (UML) as General Secretary from 2008 to February 2009 and was elected as the Chairman of the CPN (UML) on February 16, 2009.
On 3 February 2011, after seven months of political gridlock in which no candidate could muster enough votes to be elected as Prime Minister, Jhala Nath Khanal was elected as Prime Minister by the Constituent Assembly. Khanal received 368 votes in the 601-member parliament, while his nearest rivals, Ram Chandra Poudel of the Nepali Congress and Bijay Kumar Gachhedar of Madhesi People's Rights Forum (Democratic), got 122 votes and 67 votes respectively.