Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" on Tuesday expanded his Cabinet for the first time by inducting 12 ministers and three junior ministers and finalised a power-sharing deal, more than three weeks after assuming charge. Prachanda, the 68-year-old CPN-Maoist Centre leader was sworn in as the Nepal PM on December 25 last year, for the third time after he dramatically walked out of the pre-poll alliance led by the Nepali Congress and joined hands with K P Sharma Oli.
Top leaders from the ruling coalition, including the CPN (Maoist Centre), the CPN-UML, the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and the Janata Samajbadi Party (JSB) met Prime Minister Prachanda at his residence here on Monday to finalise the power-sharing deal.
Bimala Rai Paudel from the CPM (UML) was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs, while Hari Upreti was elevated as the country's Defence Min.