Weeks after a seniority row between two senior ministers hit the headlines, the government on Tuesday said that newly-inducted Deputy Prime Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar will be the seniormost minister in Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s Cabinet.

According to a new portfolio released by the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers on Tuesday, DPM Gachhadar, who also heads the Ministry of Local Development is the seniormost minister under PM Dahal.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Bimalendra Nidhi stands third in the protocol, followed by DPM and Finance Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara.

Gachhadar has become DPM for 12 times, including the latest induction, while this is the first chair of Nidhi as DPM. PM Dahal is said to have consulted with Nidhi and taken him into confidence before inducting Gachhadar as the seniormost minister in his Cabinet.

A row over seniority between Nidhi and the outgoing DPM, Kamal Thapa, took a nasty turn with Nidhi skipping the Cabinet meeting on several occasions. He later resigned objecting to the impeachment motion registered in Parliament against Chief Justice Sushila Karki.

However, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba convinced him to withdraw his resignation and resume his office after Thapa resigned from the Cabinet.

Two NLF leaders inducted as state ministers

Prime Miniser Pushpa Kamal Dahal inducted two more Nepal Loktantrik Forum leaders as state ministers on Tuesday, a day after the party joined the government.

PM Dahal administered oath of office and secrecy to State Minister for Land Reforms and Managament Yashoda Kumari Lama, and State Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Sumitra Tharuni, at his office in Singha Durbar.

Another NLF leader Janakraj Chaudhary, who was away in Mugu on party’s work on Tuesday, would be inducted as state minister for Federal Affairs and Local Development on Wednesday.

On Monday, PM had inducted three ministers from the NLF, including its Chairman Bijay Kumar Gachhadar as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Federal Affairs and Local Development, Jitendra Dev as Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, and Gopal Dahit as Minister for Land Reforms and Management.

After the Rastriya Prajatantra Party decided to pull out from the Dahal-led government, claiming the major coalition partners Nepali Congress and CPN (Maoist Centre) did not consult with the RPP while registering the impeachment motion against Chief Justice Sushila Karki, those ministerial positions were lying vacant. The ruling coalition had decided to fill in the vacant ministries with the NLF candidates instead.

The RPP leaders had a change of heart after the Supreme Court issued a stay order on the impeachment motion. But NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba had refused to let them rejoin the government in their previous positions after the RPP forged an electoral alliance with the CPN-UML.