KATMANDU – Nepal’s Maoist leader, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, known as “Prachanda,” has now been sworn in as the first prime minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, having won an overwhelming vote in the Constituent Assembly elected in April. The Assembly’s opening action had been to vote almost unanimously to abolish the 239-year-old monarchy, and in June former King Gyanendra Shah departed from the palace, remaining in the country as an ordinary citizen.