Kathmandu: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, after severing ties with the Nepali Congress and joining hands with the CPN-UML, has expanded his cabinet by inducting 16 new ministers from four different parties.
President Ram Chandra Paudel administered the oath of office to the newly appointed ministers on Wednesday evening.
The prime minister appointed four ministers from his party, the CPN (Maoist Centre), seven from the CPN-UML, three from the Rastriya Swatantra Party, and two from the CPN (Unified Socialist).
From the CPN-UML, Raghubir Mahaseth will lead the second largest party in the government as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport. Likewise, Rajendra Rai has been appointed the Minister for Water Supply; Bhagwati Chaudhary the Minister for Women, Children, and Senior Citizens; Damodar Bhandari the Minister for Industry, Commerce, and Supplies, and Jwala Kumari Sah the Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development. Similarly, Hari Uprety and Balram Adhikari took the oath of office and secrecy as Minister for Defence and Minister for Land Management and Cooperatives respectively. Padam Giri, previously appointed as a minister without portfolio, will now head the Ministry of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs.
The Rastriya Swatantra Party, with 21 seats, will handle crucial ministries such as Home Affairs, Labor, Employment, and Social Security, Youth and Sports, and Education, Science, and Technology. Lamichhane, the party’s chair, will head the Home Ministry, with Dol Prasad Aryal and Biraj Bhakta Shrestha assigned to the Labor and Sports ministries, respectively. Sumana Shrestha will lead the Education Ministry.
Likewise, from the Maoist Centre, Dahal will lead the government, and Narayan Kaji Shrestha has been appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs. Shrestha previously served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs before the prime minister’s decision to end the alliance with the Nepali Congress. Also, Barshaman Pun has been appointed Minister for Finance.
Shakti Bahadur Basnet and Rekha Sharma of the Maoist party have been reappointed as Minister for Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation and Minister for Communications and Information Technology, respectively.
Likewise, Bhanu Bhakta Joshi and Dhan Bahadur Budha from the CPN (Unified Socialist) party took an oath of office and secrecy as Minister for Federal Affairs and General Administration and Minister for Urban Development, respectively.
Breaking the alliance with the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the House of Representatives, Prime Minister Dahal aligned with the CPN-UML, the second-largest party in the lower house.
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