The ministers from CPN (Maoist Centre) are biding their time as they wait for the nod from the party headquarters to exit the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government. 

Earlier, the Maoist ministers had said that they shall remain in the government till the nomination process of the First Past The Post (FPTP) category for the upcoming federal and provincial polls are completed. 

The Maoist ministers were supposed to discuss their exit from the government on Sunday, but the meeting did not come to pass. 

Minister Tek Bahadur Basnet said that the party had not decided whether to remain or quit the government because the Election Commission itself was not certain if there would be one or two ballot papers. 

Another Maoist minister Asha Koirala said they were not interested in remaining in the government without portfolios for long.

“We are waiting for the party’s decision to leave the government, but we have been asked to attend the Monday morning’s Cabinet meeting,”Koirala said.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had stripped 17 Maoist ministers of their responsibilities on October 17.

The Maoist party that had earlier decided to part ways with the coalition delayed its exit after reports about the likelihood of the elections getting postponed by the Supreme Court’s order to print separate ballot papers for the two polls. 

The apex court on October 19 refused to issue interim order as appealed by petitioner Sarbendra Nath Shukla, arguing that there should be separate ballot papers.

The division bench of  Justice Dipak Raj Joshi and Justice Purushottam Bhandari, however, has stated in the verdict that the Election Commission would consider the issue of printing separate ballot papers for the FPTP system