Prime Minister, Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) gave full size to his cabinet on the 21st day of him resuming the office by inducting 15 new ministers Tuesday.
The Pesident Bidhya Devi Bhandari administered oath of office and secrecy to new ministers.
The portfolio allocation was finalized last moment after series of meeting among the top leaders of the constituent parties. And, the choice of ministers as picked by their respective party leader has left visible resentment and anger.
The CPN-UML, the biggest party in the government bagged highest numbers of seats with sought after portfolio it was able to secure foreign affairs, health and defense among others.
Rajendra Lingden chairperson of the RPP has been inducted in the cabinet as fourth DPM in charge of Energy and Water Resources.
Similarly, the RSP which already has DPM in charge of Home Affairs was another lucky constituent as it got 3 ministries and a State Minister.
The Rastriya Prajatantra Party with 14 seats also got 3 ministries and a State Minister. The SJP with 12 seats in parliament declined to join the ministry as it was off ward and stated of getting not so significant ministries.
Jwala Kumari Shah and Abdul Khan who had been included in the cabinet when it was formed had also been allocated the portfolios.
PM Dahal has formed a 8 member cabinet on December 26 waiting for the understating among coalition partners to give it a full size.
Bimala Poudel Rai with NGO background got the foreign ministry portfolio defining all speculations apparently on the wish of Prez Bidhya Devi Bhandri against the UML quota. She is an upper house member, a nominee of the president and has one-year term left. She has also earlier served as adviser to the president.
Other new ministers included in the cabinet are:
CPN-UMLs- Padam Giri (Health), Dr Bimala Rai Poudel (Foreign affairs) Hari Upreti (Defense), Jawala Kumari Shah (Agriculture), Bhagwati Chaudhari (Women and Children) Damador Bhandari (Industry, Commerce and Supplies) and Rajendra Rai (Land Management and Cooperatives)
CPN (MC) – Rekha Sharma (Communications and Technology), Sudhan Kirati (Tourism), Aman Lal Modi (Federal Affairs and General Administration)
RSP- Sisir Khanal (Education), Dol Prasad Aryal (Labour and Employment)
RPP- Bikram Pandey (Urban Developemnt), Dhurba Pradhan (Law)
Minister of state – RSP’s Toshima Karki will be looking after Ministry of Health while RPP’s Deepak Bahadur Singh has been allotted Energy and MC’s Sushila Shreepali to Physical Infrastructure and Transport.