The Rastriya Prajatantra Party will not join the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government immediately.

The party, however, said it will extend support to the government.

“We will not join the government right now. But will support it from outside,” said Chairman Rajendra Lingden.

The party that has 14 lawmakers extended its support to CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal for the prime ministerial berth on Sunday.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari appointed Dahal as the prime minister of Nepal as per Article 76 (2) of the constitution.

Dahal has the support of 169 members, including 78 from the CPN-UML, 32 from his own Maoist Centre party and 20 from the Rastriya Swatantra Party, apart from 14 of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, 12 from the Janata Samajbadi Party, six from Janamat Party, and four from Nagarik Unmukti Party. He also secured the backing of independent lawmakers Prabhu Sah, Kiran Kumar Sah and Amresh Kumar Singh.

Breaking the coalition led by the largest party Nepali Congress, Dahal joined hands with the second largest party UML after Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba refused to allow him to lead the government for the first half of the five-year term.