Shiva Maya Tumbahangphe, who resigned as deputy speaker last month, has been appointed as the Minister for Law and Justice on Monday. President Bidya Devi Bhandari will administer her the oath of the office and secrecy at 3:30 in the afternoon.

“Prime Minister has appointed her as Law Minister. She will assume office after the oath,” Surya Thapa, press advisor to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, told the Post.

She had resigned from the post of deputy speaker after almost month-long negotiations between ruling party chairs KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal as both wanted persons of their choice as Speaker.

Earlier before resigning, Tumbahangphe had staked claim to the Speaker post which was vacant since early October after Krishna Bahadur Mahara stepped down following allegations of attempted rape.

The ruling party's reluctance to give her the Speaker post was criticised by many including women members of the Nepal Communist Party, who alleged that the patriarchy was deeply entrenched in the party.

“We overthrew the monarchy easily but we still need to make lots of efforts to root out patriarchy,” Tumbahangphe had told the media persons after the resignation on January 20. She had resisted the pressure from the party to resign for over a month but had to put into papers after Agni Sapkota was picked as the Speaker’s candidate. The Law Ministry is vacant after Upendra Yadav, chairman of Samajbadi Party, resigned on December 24. Bhanu Bhakta Dhakhal, minister for health, had been taking charge of the ministry for the last one month.