Nepal witnessed political turbulence in 2022 that dramatically turned rivals into allies and throned former guerrilla leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" as the Prime Minister for a third time, as Kathmandu made efforts to balance ties with immediate neighbours India and China with high-profile talks and visits.
Prachanda, the 68-year-old CPN-Maoist Centre chairman, surprisingly left his pre-poll alliance with the Nepali Congress and joined hands with rival CPN-UML led by former premier K P Sharma Oli and five other smaller parties to become prime minister.
Elections to the lower house and seven provincial assemblies were held last month to end the prolonged political instability that had plagued the Himalayan nation. However, the polls resulted in a hung parliament, with the Nepali Congress emerging as the single largest party, followed by CPN-UML and Prachanda's CPN-Maoist.
No party in the 275-member House of Representatives got 138 seats required to form a government.
The wheel turned full circle since Prachanda and Oli were allies till the former broke away last year and backed Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba for the post of prime minister.