Chief Minister of Bagmati province Indra Bahadur Baniya has expanded his Cabinet.
On Friday, Chief Minister Baniya had recommended five ministers from the Nepali Congress to the province chief for appointment. The province chief appointed and administer the oath of office to the new ministers on Friday afternoon.
Urmila KC Nepal was appointed as minister for youth and sports, Kanchan Chandra Bade as minister for social development, Prabhat Tamang as minister for economic affairs, Binu Rayamajhi as minister for cooperatives and poverty alleviation, and Suresh Shrestha as minister for culture.
Previously, Shivaraj Adhikari was appointed as minister for internal affairs and Krishna Tamang as minister for water supply from the NC.
In the Bagmati provincial government, there are now eight ministers (including the chief minister) from the NC and six from the CPN-UML. The province has a total of 14 ministries, including the Chief Minister’s Office.
While appointing ministers, Chief Minister Baniya did not include any of the 14 NC lawmakers who had supported outgoing chief minister Bahadur Singh Lama Tamang.
According to a lawmaker from the faction of Chief Minister Baniya, no lawmaker from the Tamang faction has been appointed as minister.
Tamang had met NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba and said that his faction should also have some representation in the provincial Cabinet.
The NC has 37 lawmakers in Bagmati. Among them, 22 had supported Baniya, 14 had voted against him and one vote was declared invalid.
Baniya was appointed chief minister after defeating Tamang in the election for NC parliamentary party leader. He has since secured a vote of confidence in the provincial assembly.
Six ministers have already been appointed to Baniya’s Cabinet from the CPN-UML. Among them, Dinesh Chandra Devkota was appointed as minister for physical infrastructure, Jayaram Thapa as minister for labor and employment, Bharat Bahadur KC as minister for forests and environment, Madhusudan Paudel as minister for agriculture and livestock, Bindu Shrestha as minister for industry, and Kiran Thapa Magar as minister for health.
