Better known by his nom de guerre Prachanda ("The Fierce One"), Dahal led thousands of insurgents during Nepal's decade-long civil war but switched to parliamentary politics at the conflict's end.

The 69-year-old was elected prime minister for a third time in December 2022 but will be forced to stand down again after coalition allies withdrew their support.

"Someone like Prachanda, who opens the doors of peace with the power of a revolution, may not be born again," Dahal said, referring to himself in the third person during a speech urging lawmakers to keep him in office.

He was able to win the support of only 63 MPs among the 258 present to vote on the future of his government.

Dahal will remain in office under a caretaker government until a parliamentary vote to elect his replacement, expected as early as Sunday.

His brief tenure was nonetheless one of the longest continuous premierships since Nepal's monarchy was abolished in 2008 at the end of the civil war.

Only three other prime ministers had served in office longer than him over that period, and of those only one lasted more than two years.

Dahal himself had served as premier on two earlier occasions for less than a year at a time.

His Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) was the third-largest party in parliament after the 2022 poll but he managed to remain in power through deft negotiating.

Three-time premier K.P. Sharma Oli, head of the larger Communist Party of Nepal - Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) is expected to form the next government with the backing of the centre-left Nepali Congress.

Oli, 72, is then expected to yield the post to Congress leader and five-time prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, 78, later in the parliamentary term under a deal negotiated between the two parties.