Ruling parties the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML have formed a four-member taskforce to draft the common minimum programme of the coalition government.

Leaders from the two parties including Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba held a meeting at the prime minister’s official residence in Baluwatar and decided to form the taskforce to outline the policies and programmes to guide the government functioning.

Party general secretary Gagan Thapa and spokesperson Prakash Sharan Mahat from Nepali Congress; and deputy general secretaries Pradeep Gyawali and Bishnu Rimal from the UML are in the taskforce.

The lawmakers from the ruling coalition had publicly expressed their dissatisfaction at the ruling coalition’s failure to make public its common minimum programme nearly two months after the formation of the government.

Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel, UML General Secretary Shankar Pokharel, Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak, Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba, among others, were present in the two-party discussion.

Oli was sworn-in as prime minister for his fourth term on July 15 after the two largest parties–Congress and UML–reached an agreement to run the government on a rotation basis. As per the political understanding, UML chair Oli will lead the government for the first half of the remaining term of the present parliament and after that Congress chief Deuba will lead the coalition government until the next election.