Senior UML leader Bharat Mohan Adhikari today said an interim cabinet should be formed before the SAARC summit, which is slated for April 3-4.

Senior UML leader Bharat Mohan Adhikari (File photo)

Senior UML leader Bharat Mohan Adhikari (File photo)
“Prime Minister Koirala’s image will get a boost if he forms the interim government before he leaves for the SAARC summit,” Adhikari said speaking at a programme in the capital.

If the interim government is formed before the SAARC summit the world community would get a positive message that the country is going to hold constituent assembly election in time, he further said.

Prime Minister Koirala is set to leave for New Delhi on April 1 to attend the summit.

Referring to the claim of the Nepali Congress over plum ministries, Adhikari argued that no single party could bargain for the posts of the Prime Minister and the Home Minister together. “That’s why the UML has been claiming the Home Ministry,” he said, adding, “Since we are part of a coalition government, not that of a majority government of the NC, we want respectable position in the interim cabinet.”

While eight-party negotiations are yet to reach a decisive point regarding the formation of the interim cabinet, sources said Prime Minister Koirala was positive, during his separate meetings with the top leaders four major parties a few days earlier – about giving the finance portfolio to the UML, but he was adamant on home and defence portfolios for his party. Earlier, the NC had claimed the finance ministry as well.

The UML is all set to send a new team in the interim government.