The government has proposed Nilamber Acharya, a former minister, parliamentarian and ambassador, as Nepal’s ambassador to India.

The post in New Delhi had been vacant for a year after Deep Kumar Upadhyay resigned ahead of the parliamentary elections. To head its Delhi mission, the government had been looking for a candidate with democratic credentials who is well versed on Nepal-India relations and international affairs while being supportive of the communist administration.

Ahead of his nomination, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had asked him to take the charge. “I’m about to retire but will happily accept this new responsibility,” Acharya told the Post.

Acharya was an interim minister after the political change of 1990. He later became the ambassador to Sri Lanka. He was nominated to the first Constituent Assembly elected in 2008 and went on to head its constitutional committee.

Currently, he coordinates the Nepal side of the Eminent Persons Group on Nepal-India relations. A Moscow University graduate, Acharya was initially left-leaning but the Nepali Congress had nominated him to the CA. He is an advocate too.

Earlier, the Oli government had nominated former chief election commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety but the decision was cancelled owing to disputes over the new role and differences within the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP).

A Cabinet meeting on Sunday evening also decided to recommend Uday Raj Pandey as Nepal’s ambassador to Malaysia and Krishna Prasad Dhakal to the United Arab Emirates, according to a minister. Pandey, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, is a politician from the ruling party while Dhakal is a joint-secretary at Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Nepal’s missions in Malaysia and the UAE have been headless for long.