Nepal's President Rambaran Yadav today asked political parties to form a consensus government before February 2.
If the parties fail to form the consensus government, Yadav will ask them to form a majority government, the President's Office said in a statement.
The president's announcement came hours after the Nepali Congress elected its president Sushil Koirala as the party's leader in the Constituent Assembly, which also doubles as the parliament.
Koirala, 74, is set to become the next prime minister as the Nepali Congress emerged as the single largest party in the 601-seat assembly after it secured 196 seats in the November 19 polls.
Nepali Congress, however, needs support from either CPN- UML or Unified CPN-Maoist and other fringe parties to reach the magical number of 301 seats in the Constituent Assembly to form the government.
