Prime Minister (PM) Pushpa Kamal Dahal will expand the Cabinet on Sunday.
PM Dahal will again expand the Cabinet on Sunday after Nepali Congress (NC) wrote to appoint its central member NP Saud as foreign minister. PM Dahal has already written to the President’s Office about that and the latter is preparing to swear Saud in later Sunday afternoon.
NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba sent four ministers from his faction led by Purna Bahadur Khadka as deputy PM and defense minister when PM Dahal expanded the Cabinet on March 31. Prakash Sharan Mahat (Finance), Ramesh Rijal (Industry) and Sita Gurung (Urban Development) were the other ministers from NC. Saud is also from Deuba’s faction.
NC has not been able to finalize the name of the remaining four ministers with the Shekhar Koirala faction refusing to give names if it were not given at least three ministers.
Deuba has now asked the Koirala faction to pick three ministers and a state minister as the grand old party now looks set to get nine ministers and a state minister with Janamat Party unlikely to join the government.
Janamat Party left the government after not getting the Ministry of Commerce, Supply and Industry. Abdul Khan, who was overseeing the Ministry of Water Supply, resigned just before PM Dahal expanded the Cabinet on March 31.
