India welcomes peaceful conduct of Nepal polls

India has welcomed the peaceful conduct of parliamentary and provincial elections in Nepal, and said New Delhi is looking forward to working with the next government.

"India welcomes the conduct of parliamentary elections and provincial elections. We congratulate the government and the people of Nepal. India has age old unique time tested ties of friendship with the country," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said on Thursday.

"We Look forward to working with the next democratically-elected government in Nepal to advance our close and multifaceted partnership across all sectors and to support its pursuit of peace, stability , economic prosperity and all round development," he added.

With the vote counting and the results of the House of Representatives and the Provincial Council underway in Nepal, the new government is expected to be formed by mid-January.

As per the initial results, the Left Alliance in Nepal consisting of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) and the Communist Party of Nepal- Maoist Centre(CPN- MC) is expected to form the next government in the country.

According to the new constitution promulgated in 2015, which witnessed widespread protests and bloodshed in the southern plains, has given the authority to Nepalese President to choose the Prime Minister from the party which has highest seats in parliament.

The process will start after the Election Commission of Nepal submits its final results to President Bidhya Devi Bhandari which is likely to be done by the end of December.

Though, Nepal is exercising the new form of government administration with the federal concept, the physical infrastructures for the commencement of the state assemblies are yet to be determined.

The Parliament building in Baneshwor, Kathmandu, will be used as the new parliament and the commencement of the state assemblies are yet to be known.

Apart from the physical infrastructures the provision regarding the formation of the state government in absence of the State Minister is absent from the constitutional provisions.