Nepal's Prime Minister, Khadga Prasad Oli, has resigned from his post just minutes before facing a no confidence vote he was expected to lose.
Oli, 64, was forced to quit on Sunday after allies of his multi-party coalition deserted the government, accusing him of not honouring power sharing deals that helped install him as prime minister nine months ago.
"I have already submitted my resignation to the President when I met her before coming to the house," the Reuters quoted Oli as saying in a speech before parliament.
Born in eastern Nepal on February 22, 1952, Oli became a member of the Nepal Communist Party in 1970 after being influenced by local communist leaders as a teenager.
He spent 14 years in jail during the royal regime's crackdown on communists, but his politics had veered to the right in the last two decades.
Oli swept to power in October 2015, but has faced fierce criticism over his handling of protests in the impoverished quake-hit nation.
More than 50 people died in clashes between police and protesters in December, who rallied against a constitution they said left them politically marginalised.
The new constitution, the first drawn up by elected representatives, was meant to cement peace and bolster Nepal's transformation to a democratic republic after decades of political instability, but ongoing discussions between the government and protesters over the charter have failed to yield agreement.
A change in government is nothing new in Nepal, with Oli the eighth prime minister in the past 10 years.
Rajendra Daahl, a former adviser to former President Ram Baran Yadav, said Oli's decision was expected.
"In the last 25 years this was Nepal's 22nd government, and we are still expecting two more governments in the period of this parliament within the next one and a half years, so this is very typical of coalition politics.
"It will take some more weeks, maybe even months to form a new government," Daahl told Al Jazeera.
President Bidhya Devi Bhandari is expected to make the next move, which means she might ask Oli's government to become a caretaker until a new government is in place, or she will call on all parties to form a government by consensus.
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