Just as newly elected Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal formed a six-member Cabinet on Thursday, the intra-party wrangling—both within the governing CPN (Maoist Centre) and its key coalition partner the Nepali Congress—started coming to the fore.

In the NC, Shekhar Koirala and Arjun Narsingh KC were poised to join the government on Thursday along with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Bimalendra Nidhi and Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Ramesh Lekhak.

Both Koirala and KC, according to sources, opted not to join the Cabinet after they were not given “the ministries of their choice.”

Koirala, who was eyeing Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is said to have been offered Ministry of Health. Before a full-fledged career in politics, Koirala was a medical practitioner. Similarly, KC had been seeking to lead the party in the Dahal-led government. According to sources, he had later settled for Ministry of Home Affairs even if he did not lead the NC team. But he refused to join the government neither as minister for defence nor as minister for health.

The story is not much different in the Maoist party.

Janardan Sharma, who wanted deputy prime ministership along with Ministry of Finance, is said to have shown his reluctance to join the government. According to Maoist Centre leaders, after Krishna Bahadur Mahara was given DPM and Ministry of Finance, Sharma reached an agreement with the party chairman that he would rather lead Maoist Centre team in the next government to be formed under the leadership of the NC.