Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Tuesday expanded the Council of Ministers inducting 12 ministers and three state ministers, three weeks after he took charge of the office.

The government now has four deputy prime ministers—Bishnu Poudel from the CPN-UML, Narayan Kaji Shrestha from the CPN (Maoist Centre), Rabi Lamichhane from the Rastriya Swatantra Party and Rajendra Lingden from the Rastriya Prajatantra Party.

The newly appointed deputy prime minister and ministers took an oath of office and secrecy from President Bidya Devi Bhandari. Prime Minister Dahal administered oaths to the newly appointed state ministers.

From the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Rajendra Lingden took the oath as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Energy, Dhruva Bahadur Pradhan as Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Bikram Pandey as Minister for Urban Development and Deepak Bahadur Singh as State Minister for Energy.

Likewise, from UML, Bimala Rai was sworn in as Minister for Foreign Affairs, Padam Giri as Minister for Health and Population, Bhagwati Chaudhary as Minister for Women, Children and Senior Citizens and Hari Uprety as Minister for Defence.

Rekha Sharma and Aman Lal Modi from the CPN (Maoist Centre) became Minister for Communications and Information Technology and Minister for Federal Affairs and General Administration respectively. Sudan Kirati has been appointed Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation. Newly appointed State Minister for Tourism Sushila Shreepali was absent from the oath-taking ceremony.

From the Rastriya Swatantra Party, Shishir Khanal took an oath as Minister for Education, Dol Prasad Aryal as Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security and Toshima Karki as State Minister for Heath.

Top leaders of the ruling coalition had agreed on ministerial allocations late Monday night.