Nepal's parliament has elected veteran communist leader Jhalanath Khanal as the 34th Prime Minister last evening, ending the seven month long political deadlock. The breakthrough came after opposition Unified CPN(Maoist) withdrew its Chairman Prachanda from the electoral race and decided to vote for Khanal. He secured 368 votes, more than the simple majority required in the 601-member House, while his immediate rival Ram Chandra Poudel of Nepali Congress got 122 votes. Madesh Janadhikar Forum (Loktantrik) Chairman Bijay Gachchdar , the third contestant got 67 votes. The Chairman of the CPN (UML) Jhalnath Khanal will succeed Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal from the same party, who resigned on June 30 last year under intense pressure from the opposition Maoists. AIR Kathmandu Correspondent reports that integration of the Maoist army and their rehabilitation – a key component of the peace process and writing of the new constitution within the May 28 dateline remains the main challenges before the Khanal-led government. Khanal will take oath when President Rambaran Yadav, currently on an official visit to India, is back on February 5. Earlier in the day, Maoist leader Prachanda announced his withdrawal from a four-cornered contest, and declared that his party, with 237 members, would be voting for Khanal, giving him a comfortable majority in the Legislature Parliament which had witnessed futile exercises in the past seven months as no contestants could muster the required support. The 60-year-old Jhalanath Khanal was born in the south-eastern district of Ilam in 1950. A graduate from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Khanal entered politics in 1965. He was a founding member of the leftist UML (Unified Marxist Leninist) party. Khanal had served as the General Secretary of CPN (ML) from 1982 to 1990. After restoration of democracy, he became the minister for agriculture, land reform and management in the Interim Government formed in 1990 and was elected as a lawmaker in 1991 and 1994 general elections. Khanal became a member of parliament from the Ilam constituency in the constituent assembly elections held in 2008. A year later, he was elected Chairman of the CPN-UML party. Khanal became the third communist Prime Minister of Nepal after abolition of Monarchy in 2008 although it took seven months for him to get elected after resignation of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal in June last year.