Province 2 Chief Minister (CM) Lal Babu Raut has started discussion to include Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN (Maoist Center) in the government after firing four ministers from the Thakur-Mahato faction of Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) on Sunday.
CM Raut fired Physical Infrastructure Development Minister Jitendra Sonal, Minister of State for Physical Infrastructure Development Dimple Jha, Social Development Minister Abhiram Sharma and Minister of State for Industry, Forest and Tourism Suresh Mandal Sunday evening.
Raut, who is close to Chairman Upendra Yadav, has support of 36 out of 55 JSP lawmakers in the province and needs 17 more lawmakers for majority.
CPN-UML has 21, NC 19 and Maoist Center eight seats in the province.
A source confided that NC has demanded three ministers and Maoist Center two, and Raut can appoint al least one state minister each from the two parties Monday itself.
Raut has formed a task force under him for negotiations with the parties. The task force also includes a few ministers and NC parliamentary party leader Ram Saroj Yadav and whip Upendra Kuswaha.
Maoist Center parliamentary party leader Bharat Prasad Sah also confirmed that the party is holding discussion about joining the government and added that the ministries it will get has yet to be decided.
NC had initially staked claim for the post of CM but has given up the demand now. NC Vice-president Bimalendra Nidhi demanded the post of CM when JSP Chairman Upendra Yadav firs met him to propose alliance in the province. NC has since then given up the demand.
