Valley
Deuba starts homework to expand Cabinet
After failing to secure the required numbers to amend the constitution, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has started homework to expand his Cabinet.After failing to secure the required numbers to amend the constitution, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has started homework to expand his Cabinet.
A joint taskforce of the ruling Nepali Congress and CPN (Maoist Centre) has been assigned to allocate the ministries.
Bimalendra Nidhi and Ramesh Lekhak from the NC and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Krishna Bahadur Mahara and Barshaman Pun from the Maoist Centre are in the taskforce.
Earlier, PM Deuba and Maoist Centre Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal had reached an agreement to expand the Cabinet only after amending the constitution.
But after the CPN-UML’s refusal to extend support to constitution amendment, the governing parties on Tuesday decided not to put the constitution amendment bill to vote in Parliament, as they lack the required numbers to pass it.
The Cabinet will be expanded soon, said Nidhi.
“We were making efforts to ensure a two-thirds majority to amend the constitution. Since chances of securing the required numbers are slim, the constitution amendment process has been put on hold for now,” he said.
Deuba has been leading an eight-member Cabinet since he was elected prime minister on June 7.
He is under mounting pressure to expand the Cabinet in view of the tasks his government has to perform in the next few months—the third phase of local polls in September and two other elections—provincial and national-by January next year.