The ruling coalition has handed over responsibility of selecting ministers to the top leaders.
A meeting of top leaders including Prime Minister (PM) Sher Bahadur Deuba, CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) Chairman Upendra Yadav, Federal Council Chairman of JSP Baburam Bhattarai and Rastriya Janamorcha Chairman Chitra Bahadur KC at Baluwatar Wednesday morning decided so, according to Nepali Congress (NC) General Secretary Purna Bahadur Khadka.
"The meeting did a brief review of the government's works until now and also discussed about completing the Cabinet soon," Khadka said after the meeting that ran for almost two hours. "No solid decision has been taken about Cabinet expansion. But it will be done soon."
The leaders advised PM Deuba to soon complete the Cabinet pointing that government's works have not been effective in lack of ministers.
Deuba has inducted just four ministers and one state minister in his Cabinet since becoming PM over two weeks back.
Senior Leader Ram Chandra Paudel, Khadka and former general secretary Krishna Sitaula were also present in the meeting representing NC. Narayan Kaji Shrestha of Maoist Center, Ashok Rai from JSP and Vice-Chair of Janamorcha Durga Paudel were also present during the meeting.
Senior Leader of CPN-UML Madhav Kumar Nepal, however, did not attend the meeting despite being invited. Bijay Paudel from the Khanal-Nepal faction of UML attended the meeting.
The meeting also discussed common minimum program of the coalition and instructed the task force led by Khadka to prepare it soon. The coalition parties also discussed about bringing more doses of vaccines against COVID-19 and administering them to the people.
The parties also discussed appointment of businessman Umesh Shrestha as minister of state for health, and advised that ministers, state ministers and other political appointments be made only after discussion with the coalition parties.
"Discussions were held on theoretical issues more than solid decisions today," Khadka added.
