In his latest Cabinet expansion, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal inducted three ministers from the Nepali Congress on Wednesday and they were all administered the oath of office on Thursday.

Now, the Dahal-led Cabinet only has two ministries left to be filled—the Water Supply, and the Forest and Environment.

The Ministry of Water Supply has been vacant since the Janamat Party refused to lead the ministry over the dissatisfaction with the prime minister’s failure to give them a ministry of their choice—like the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply.

According to leaders close to the ruling dispensation, the Ministry of Forest and Environment has already been booked for the Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP).

JSP chair Upendra Yadav has just been elected to the federal parliament from Bara-2 through the April 23 bypolls and is keen to join the government as a deputy prime minister with an important ministry.

In this context, the prime minister also wants to have on board the fourth-largest force in the Parliament, the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), with the intent of strengthening the coalition. The party has 20 seats in the House of Representatives (excluding Deputy Speaker Indira Rana Magar).

However, leaders close to the prime minister said they are waiting for the official stand of the RSP which has yet to decide whether to join the government.

The RSP has said it will make the call at its central committee meeting on Friday. The RSP, which was in the Dahal Cabinet, left the government in the first week of February. However, it still hasn’t withdrawn its support to the government, even after recalling its ministers from the government.

The prime minister, who is running a coalition government backed by 10 different parties, is in a difficult spot. If the RSP decides to join the government, it will claim the previous ministries it led: Home; Education, Science and Technology; and Labour, Employment and Social Security; in addition to a state minister’s position.

Currently, the CPN (Maoist Centre) senior vice-chair Narayan Kaji Shrestha is leading the home ministry while the Janata Samajbadi Party’s Ashok Rai leads the education ministry. Likewise, the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party’s senior leader Sharat Singh Bhandari leads the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security.

RSP chair Rabi Lamichhane was at the helm of the home ministry as a deputy prime minister, while DP Aryal led the labour ministry. Sishir Khanal was the education minister and Dr Toshima Karki the state minister for health and population from the RSP.

“First of all, the RSP should formally decide to join the government. Only then can we discuss how to give space to the ministers the party proposes,” said Haribol Gajurel, chief adviser to Prime Minister Dahal. “As almost all ministries are occupied, all the coalition partners must sit together and make a final call—but again only if the RSP wishes to join the government.”

Gajurel said the prime minister wanted to bring the RSP into his

government so as to strengthen its base, but added that it's entirely up to the party concerned to decide.

“Even in the past, it was not the government leadership that had asked them to leave the government,” Gajurel said. “They want to lead the same ministries they did before. What I can say is that it will be difficult to get the parties to vacate the ministries they have just gotten to lead.”

CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal has also asked the prime minister to bring the RSP into the government fold.

Speaking to journalists at Godavari of Kailali, Nepal said the ruling coalition would discuss the issue of bringing the RSP into the Cabinet. “We have already agreed to have the RSP in government,” said Nepal.

The RSP leaders have been saying that they would join the government only if the prime minister accepts their conditions, which include being given all the ministries they previously led, the inclusion of their issues in the government’s Common Minimum Programme (CMP) and a commitment not to interfere in the ministries allotted to them.

They also claimed that the prime minister was ready to fulfil their demands.

However, the parties in the coalition seem more hesitant.

“I don’t think the top leaders of the Congress and the Unified Socialist are ready to give the home ministry to the RSP,” said a member of the Secretariat of Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha. “The coalition partners are yet to discuss the issue of allocating ministries for the RSP.”

Some Congress leaders said the chances of the prime minister inducting the RSP into the government are slim as no coalition partner will let go of the ministries they occupy. They claim the Maoist Centre too won’t allot the home ministry to the RSP, a key demand of its chair Lamichhane, as the Maoist party is getting political mileage in the fake Bhutanese refugee case.

“If the RSP gets the home ministry now, all the credit for taking action against those involved in the refugee scam will go to the new party. So the Maoist Centre will not allow the RSP to lead the home ministry,” said a Congress leader, requesting anonymity. “But then the new party says it won’t join the government without the Home portfolio.”

Some RSP members even claim that UML chair KP Sharma Oli has proposed Rabi Lamichhane lead the government, as the head of a separate coalition excluding the Congress and the CPN (Maoist Centre).

Some leaders said it was a slim possibility, while others were of the view that it was nothing but the RSP’s tactic to bargain for better ministries, including Home.

Leaders of the ruling coalition, meanwhile, have said it’s up to the prime minister to manage his Cabinet.

“All decisions on government formation rest on the prime minister, so he will do the needful,” said Beduram Bhusal, who leads CPN (Unified Socialist) in the Dahal government. “If he wants to take the RSP along, he will have to manage it somehow.”

Some also believe that the prime minister wants to cash in on the popularity wave of the RSP by bringing it to the government.

“Besides Dahal’s desire to fortify his government, the prime minister also wants to address the public frustration with the older parties,” said Jhalak Subedi, a political analyst. “For that, members of the ruling coalition may not hesitate to leave some ministries if the RSP is really interested in joining.”