Walking into the arena of unarmed electoral politics, the rebel of yesterday turned today's Nepal's prime minister, Dahal is walking on thin ice now. He has just passed another ordeal by fire by winning a vote of confidence in the lower house of parliament last week.

Dahal secured the votes of 157 out of 268 MPs who were present in the 275-member lower house of parliament. It is not a big deal in a functioning democracy but it is indeed a quantum leap of faith for one who once made no bones about denouncing democratic form of governance.

It is one more sure sign of Prachanda shedding the jungle warfare garb and donning a more sedate attire of a participant in the democratic governance and the electoral process. Dahal is here to stay.

The Prime Minister followed the Constitution of his country which lays down that he must seek a vote of confidence after an ally withdraws support. Led by Sher Bahadur Deuba, the Nepali Congress with 89 MPs withdrew support to Dahal's government.

Dahal's CPN(MC) despite having 30 MPs saved the day with Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) with 79 MPs led by KP Sharma Oli extending support. Indeed Dahal can look back in wonder at the road he has travelled so far.

Here is a man who spearheaded Maoist insurgency in Nepal whose immediate fallout was more than 16,000 deaths between 1996 and 2006. But on preferring the ballot box to bullets, Dahal has managed to survive.

It was not plain sailing for Dahal when CPN-UML and monarchist Rashtriya Prajatantra Party withdrew support over Dahal's backing for Ramchandra Paudal of Nepali Congress to be President. But the rug could not be snatched away from under Dahal's feet after Nepali Congress joined the government.

Little was Deuba to know that he would be dumped by Dahal who propped himself up on Oli's support this year. Even as he displayed his political flexibility, Deuba hurled the epithet "dhokebaz"(betrayer) at Dahal which can be interpreted to be an invective or a backhand complement.

Democracy is young in Nepal which had been a monarchy for 239 years. Monarchy took leave in 2008 from this Himalayan country which has had 13 governments since then. Partners in governance, Dahal and Oli has divergent takes on India. Dahal a darling of the Indian Left and other outfits nursing a left of Centre view point owing to his ideology and JNU background has a significant reservoir of goodwill in New Delhi.

Oli's position vis-a-vis India is diametrically opposite to that of his coalition partner. Oli's words and actions as prime minister during the framing of the Constitution in 2015 led to protests and a border blockade and not too many admirers for him in the South Block.

Indo-Nepalese relations touched a new low and a geographical fact that Nepal needs India as a gateway to the ports was twisted by some Nepali politicians including Oli. Nepal, according to them was "India-locked."

Dahal’s acts vis-a-vis India will be under scrutiny especially with Oli being the power behind the throne. As things stand now, cooperation in the fields of water, infrastructure and power are major constituents of India's toolkit in its relations with Nepal.

India seeks to project itself as a "elder brother" to Nepal. This is in contrast to the controlling and hectoring "big brother". It needs to be mentioned that Oli has clear Chinese leanings. As partner in the government, he will seek to prevail on Dahal to play the China card in Nepal's relationship with India.

The task is cut out for both Dahal and his Indian counterpart. The Nepalese prime minister has to usher in reforms to stabilize his country's economy and crack down on corruption which retards progress while India should strive to be an equal partner rather than an "elder brother". (IPA Service)