The Rastriya Swatantra Party, set to form the government on Friday, is working on the new administration’s roadmap while intensifying discussions for selecting ministers.

The first Cabinet meeting of the RSP with 182 seats in the 275-strong House of Representatives will on Friday make “100 decisions” related to governance, and easing public service delivery mainly through digitisation, senior leaders told the Post.

After the first meeting of the Balendra Shah-led Cabinet, ministers, upon assuming their office on the first day, will also announce decisions to provide relief to the people, a government secretary said.

Chief Secretary Suman Raj Aryal has already taken feedback from various line ministries and submitted the list to Shah, who will be sworn in as prime minister on Friday. The prime minister's team will look into the suggestions for decisions, said the secretary.

After Shah was appointed parliamentary party leader on Thursday, party president Rabi Lamichhane and Shah sat together at Lamichhane's residence in Budhanilkantha to discuss the programmes and to draw up a final list of ministers.

But the outcome of the meeting was not communicated to other top leaders of the party until late Thursday, a senior RSP leader said. “We are told that the names of new ministers will be known only on Friday morning, hours before Shah will take his oath from President Ramchandra Paudel.”

After the delay in picking the ministers, the formal announcement of Shah as prime minister by the President’s Office did not happen on Thursday. The party has informed Sheetal Niwas that it has elected Shah as its parliamentary party leader.

Article 76 of the Constitution provides for the formation of the Council of Ministers. Clause 76(1) states: "The President shall appoint the leader of the parliamentary party that has the majority in the House of Representatives as the prime minister”. And a Council of Ministers is formed under his leadership.

Lamichhane and Shah still have differences over some key ministerial posts and other arrangements, the RSP leader said. Both leaders discussed the names tabled by both sides at the meeting but could not agree on a team and decided to sit again on Friday morning.

The major bone of contention between the two leaders is the number of ministries (16 or 18), how to make Cabinet inclusive and representative of women (33 percent), dispute over home minister (DP Aryal or Sunil Lamsal), and candidates for the House Speaker and presidents of parliamentary committees.

Inside the RSP circle, the names of DP Aryal, Swarnim Wagle, Sishir Khanal, Dr Lekhjung Thapa, Sunil Lamsal, Amresh Kumar Singh, Manish Jha, Sasmit Pokharel, Sobita Gautam, Dhananjya Regmi, Deepak Bohora, Bipin Acharya, Sudan Gurung and Biraj Bhakta Shrestha are being discussed for the major roles.

Besides selecting ministers, Shah and Lamichhane are also discussing the “blueprint” of the new government. Ahead of the meeting at the RSP headquarters, Shah was picked as parliamentary party leader by a joint meeting of the party's central committee and its lawmakers. After Shah's election, Lamichhane had urged lawmakers and central committee members to trust the leadership to select ministers and the Speaker.

Speaking at a joint meeting of the central committee and the parliamentary party on Thursday at the RSP central office in Banasthali, Lamichhane stressed that there should be no lobbying for ministerial positions. “We will make selections based on expertise,” he said.

Shah will take his oath at 12:34 on Friday according to the Vedic-Sanatani tradition. Immediately after that, he will assume office at Singha Durbar.