Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ on Friday expanded his Cabinet for the seventh time in three months, inducting ministers from five new parties, including the Nepali Congress.
The newly-appointed ministers took an oath of office and secrecy from President Ramchandra Paudel at Sheetal Niwas, the President’s Office.A total of four leaders of the Nepali Congress have been appointed ministers in the first phase owing to internal disputes in the party, the Kathmandu Post newspaper reported. Despite the seventh reshuffling, the Cabinet is yet to get into full shape.
Prachanda is still looking after the foreign ministry, ministries of law, justice and parliamentary affairs; forest and environment; health and population and the ministry of youth and sports, the report said. Nepal’s 10-party ruling alliance on Thursday failed to reach a consensus on the power-sharing deal, causing yet another delay in the expansion of the Cabinet. Top leaders held meetings at the Prime Minister’s official residence here at Baluwatar to reach an agreement on the distribution of ministries among various political parties.Power sharing and the distribution of ministerial portfolios were the major bottlenecks among the members of the ruling alliance as the demand for Cabinet posts was exceeding the number of ministries available, officials said.Before the expansion, Prachanda was overburdened with about 16 ministerial portfolios, including the ministries of Home, Finance, Foreign, Industry and Commerce, Science and Technology, and Agriculture. There were only six Cabinet ministers, including the Prime Minister and one minister of state in the Prachanda-led government before Friday’s expansion, as ministers from CPN-UML, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, and Rashtriya Swotantra Party had resigned from the posts following the break up of the seven-party coalition. Prachanda, who wanted to expand his Cabinet immediately after the confidence vote, could not do so as dividing the Cabinet portfolios among alliance partners proved challenging due to rival claims on ministries. According to the constitutional provision, there cannot be more than 25 ministers in the Cabinet, including the prime minister.