The government has promoted Major General Ashok Sigdel to lieutenant general, paving the path for him to lead the Nepal Army next year.

A meeting of the Council of Ministers held on Thursday took the decision.

The NA headquarters had forwarded Sigdel’s name for promotion after Major General Tara Dhoj Pande, who was in the race to become the army chief, resigned from his post following a row over his conflicting birth dates.

Now the Cabinet decision has cleared the deck for Sigdel to become the chief of the Nepal Army after the incumbent Chief of Army Staff Prabhu Ram Sharma retires on September 9, 2024.