Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal expanded his cabinet for the third time on Wednesday, but failed to form a full-fledged cabinet as three Madhesi parties- Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF), Terai Madhesh Loktantrik Party (TMLP) and Sadbhawana Party (SP)- didn’t send their representatives today.

The Prime Minister inducted five new ministers and six ministers of state – four ministers and three state ministers from his party, CPN (UML), and one minister and three state ministers from Nepali Congress.

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal administers oath of office and secrecy to five newly appointed ministers (from right) Rabindra Shrestha, Mohammad Aftab Alam, Rakam Chemjong, Bhim Rawal and Shankar Pokharel in the presence of President Dr Ram Baran Yadav at the presidential palace, Shitwal Niwas, Wednesday, June 17 09. nepalnews.com/rh

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal administers oath of office and secrecy to five…
Ministers from the UML – Bhim Rawal (home), Shankar Pokharel (information
and communications), Rabindra Shrestha (general administration) and Rakam Chemjong (peace and reconstruction) – and Mohammad Aftab Alam (labour and transport management) from Nepali Congress were sworn in this evening.

Three ministers of state from the UML are: Jutu Gautam Darji (general administration), Dilli Bahadur Mahat (peace and reconstruction) and Rizban Ansari (home). Likewise, Ganesh Bahadur Khadka, Chandra Singh Bhattarai and Khadga Bahadur Basyal of Nepali Congress have been appointed as minister of state for local development, energy and health respectively.

Prime Minister Nepal administered oath of office and secrecy to the cabinet ministers in the presence of President Dr Ram Baran Yadav amid a ceremony at the Presidential Palace, Shital Niwas, while the state ministers were sworn in at the PMO, Singha Durbar.

Deputy Prime Minister and MJF leader Bijay Gachchhadar and leaders of other Madhesi parties were absent in the swearing-in ceremony.

The Madhesi leaders absence is construed as their displeasure over the distribution of ministerial berths.

Although the Prime Minister has agreed to allocate desired number of the ministries to them the Madhesi parties are said to be unhappy for not getting powerful portfolios they had been demanding. As per the latest agreement, MJF will get five ministries along with equal number of state ministers, TMLP will have three ministries and two state ministers and Sadbhawana one ministry plus a state minister.

The three Madhesi parties that met yesterday to form a common position over power sharing had earlier threatened to stay outside the government if they were denied fair share.

Meanwhile, Dambar Shrestha of CPN (ML) who was sworn in as minister without portfolio has got land reform ministry.

PM Nepal had inducted UML leaders Bidhya Bhandari (defence) and Surendra Pandey (finance) on May 25 when he was sworn in.

In the second cabinet expansion, he had appointed Gachchhadar as DPM with physical planning portfolio and six ministers from NC – Sujata Koirala (foreign affairs), Prakash Saran Mahat (energy), Purna Kumar Sherma (local development), Bal Krishna Khad (irrigation), Uma Kanta Choudhary (health) and Minendra Rijal (federal affairs and legislature parliament). Except Koirala, the five NC representatives were sworn in as ministers without portfolio. nepalnews.com mk June 17 09