Rocked by regular corruption scandals and allegations of irregularities and saddled with poor service delivery, misgovernance, and bleak indicators, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has made up his mind to reshuffle the Cabinet. As he completes a year in office next week, the prime minister is visibly unhappy with his team. To arrest this slide and lend his administration some momentum, Dahal will reshuffle his Cabinet, government insiders said, without giving specifics.

Addressing a function organised by his party CPN (Maoist Centre) in Morang on Friday, the prime minister said, “I will change some ministers” in order to improve the government’s performance. The prime minister is also planning to address the nation on December 26 to mark his year in office. People close to him expect big announcements on the occasion.

However, Nepali Congress, largest party in the ruling coalition and in the federal parliament, is in no hurry to change its team of ministers in the Dahal Cabinet. A Congress leader said his party is not in a position to send a new batch of ministers before the end of the party’s Mahasamiti meeting on February 22.

“In what is my third term as prime minister, I am going to complete a year in office… and I have taken some good decisions and initiatives to ensure good governance, social justice and to uplift the country’s image internationally in this period,” the prime minister said. “When I address the nation on December 26, I will tell what I did in the past year, what complexities and difficulties I felt while discharging the duties and what I will do in the next couple of months.”

While Dahal has a great say in whom to appoint ministers from his party, the Congress leadership’s reluctance to replace its representatives to the government could complicate things.

The CPN (Maoist Centre) has entrusted the prime minister with the authority to decide whom to drop and whom to retain in the Cabinet, an adviser to the prime minister told the Post. The CPN (Unified Socialist) and the Janata Samajbadi Party are also likely to send new faces to the Cabinet as the incumbent ministers from the two parties had earlier been informed that they would be replaced in a year.

The crisis of confidence and mistrust inside the Nepali Congress has made the situation unpredictable, the adviser added.

Throughout this week, Congress General Secretary Gagan Kumar Thapa and senior party leader Shekhar Koirala have been giving mixed signals to the prime minister and party president Sher Bahadur Deuba. There should soon be a new government led by the Nepali Congress, both Thapa and Koirala have been saying while criticising the prime minister for failing to run the country effectively. This means a section of the Congress leadership might be more interested in changing the government than replacing the ministers.

The Congress should tell the prime minister that the party has lost its patience with him as he could not deliver in one year, Thapa said while addressing a mass meeting in Udayapur on Friday. “Dahal has been leading the government for one year and now he is saying he will do this and that on December 26,” he said.

Dahal had earlier said that he would not change his governing team. But after sensing an attack coming from a section of the Congress, the prime minister now says he will reshuffle the Cabinet, said a Congress leader.

According to Congress and Maoist leaders, the prime minister had already consulted Deuba on his plan, offering to replace the entire set of ministers. But Deuba is learnt to have declined to change the whole team, according to a Maoist leader. “Deuba wants the continuation of some Nepali Congress ministers, hence the disagreement.”

Before the National Assembly elections, “I do not think the Cabinet will be reshuffled,” said Min Bishawkarma, the head of the Congress publicity department. The agenda could even enter the Mahasamiti meeting, he suggested. Elections will be held on January 25 to elect a third of the Assembly members.

Deuba and some Congress leaders believe that any changes in the Cabinet might cause difficulties in the upcoming elections as well as the Mahasamiti, the party’s top policy-making body.

Dahal said he was holding talks with several ministers and taking updates on their progress. “From December 27, I will start working as per the people’s aspirations… I have made up my mind to replace under-performers in order to give concrete results,” said the prime minister.

According to Govinda Acharya, press adviser to Dahal, the date of the Cabinet reshuffle is still uncertain. “But each party that has sent ministers to the government should review the performance of those ministers and help the prime minister [in his mission].”

A Maoist leader too admitted there is no chance of a Cabinet reshuffle before the National Assembly elections. The prime minister, however, has already informed the Congress president of his intent to oust the ministers who have failed to make desired progress.

The prime minister is looking for results and those ministers who have failed to deliver will be removed in consultation with the concerned parties, said Acharya.