Won't quit, would rather face vote of confidence: Nepal PM Prachanda

Embattled Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' has decided not to resign from the post despite an agreement reached between the country's largest parties -- Nepali Congress and CPN-UML -- to form a new coalition government.

In a meeting of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) office-bearers held in Baluwatar on Tuesday, Prime Minister Prachanda said he would rather face a vote of confidence in Parliament than resign from the post, the party Secretary Ganesh Shah told PTI.

"The Prime Minister has decided to seek a vote of confidence," said Shah.

Prachanda, 69, has won three votes of confidence in Parliament during his one-and-a-half-year term.

The development came after Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) inked a midnight power-sharing deal to form a new 'national consensus government' to replace the Prachanda-led coalition government.

Nepali Congress, the largest party in the House