Bagmati Province Head Deepak Prasad Devkota on Tuesday appointed Indra Bahadur Baniya as the new chief minister. Earlier, Baniya had submitted his claim to the post with the backing of 64 provincial lawmakers.

Baniya, who also chairs the Nepali Congress’s Bagmati province committee, becomes the sixth person to lead the provincial government. He replaces Bahadur Singh Lama, who stepped down on Sunday amid growing political pressure and waning support within his own party.

A simple majority of 56 seats is needed to form a government in the 110-member provincial assembly. Baniya comfortably surpasses that figure with the support of 37 members from the Nepali Congress members and 27 from the CPN-UML.

His road to leadership was paved last week when 21 lawmakers—led by Baniya himself—filed a no-confidence motion against Lama on 25 July.

Baniya is the second chief minister from Makwanpur district, following Dor Mani Paudel. His appointment comes at a time of growing calls within his party for unity and change, particularly after months of internal strife.

Earlier this week, after Lama’s resignation, Province Head Devkota invited any assembly member capable of securing majority support through an alliance of two or more parties to put forward their claim to the chief ministership, as per Article 168(2) of the Constitution.

Now in the lead role, Baniya faces the immediate challenge of stabilising the provincial government and navigating a political landscape still recovering from deep internal divisions.