Deuba is not the 40th prime minister

South Asia Check / June 7, 2017

Several newspapers and broadcast media have said that Sher Bahadur Deuba is the 40^th prime minister of Nepal. But South Asia Check has found this to be wrong.

They are doing the maths wrong.

The website of the prime minister’s office has listed K P Sharma Oli as 38^th prime minister of Nepal. This means Oli is 38^th person to become prime minister. So the media misunderstood the information and thought Pushpa Kamal Dahal was 39^th prime minister and reported that Deuba is the 40^th prime minister.

The standard prime ministerial numbering system is that no matter how many times a person, for instance Deuba, becomes prime minister, he is counted as one prime minister as Deuba is one person, and the number of prime ministers does not increase. So Sher Bahadur Deuba is the 31^st prime minister.

The basis on which KP Oli has been named as 38^th prime minister, Deuba cannot be termed as 40^th prime minister, because Deuba is not a new face. But the basis on which Deuba has been termed as 40^th prime minister actually makes him 61^st prime minister.

The following persons who became prime minister more than once have not been counted twice in the list maintained by the prime minister’s office:

Fateh Jung Shah twice

Junga Bahadur Rana twice

Matrika Prasad Koirala twice

Tulsi Giri twice

Surya Bahadur Thapa five times

Kirtinidhi Bista thrice

Nagendra Prasad Rijal twice

Lokendra Bahadur Chand four times

Krishna Prasad Bhattarai twice

Girija Prasad Koirala five times

Sher Bahadur Deuba thrice [before this term]

Pushpa Kamal Dahal twice

Source: http://www.opmcm.gov.np/former-pm/

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