Eight-member Dahal Cabinet sworn in

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Devendra Gautam

Kathmandu: President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Monday administered the oath of office and secrecy to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal at Sheetal Niwas, handing over the reins of power to a team with diverse ideological leanings. The eight-member team consists of the CPN (Maoist Center), CPN (UML), the Rabi Lamichhane-led Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) and the CK Raut-led Janamat Party. 

The team under Maoist Chair and three-time Prime Minister Dahal consists of seven other ministers, including three deputy prime ministers. They all took the oath from the President in the presence of PM Dahal. 

Of the Cabinet members, two are from the Maoist party, four from CPN-UML and one each from the RSP and the Janamat Party.

They are deputy prime ministers Rabi Lamichhane, senior Vice-chair of the Maoist party Narayan Kaji Shrestha and UML Vice-chair Bishnu Poudel.

Lamichhane holds the additional portfolio of the Ministry of Home Affairs, whereas Shrestha and Poudel hold the berths of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Infrastructure and the Ministry of Finance, respectively.

For Lamichhane, who formed RSP about seven months ago, it was a meteoric rise to power. Earlier, there were reports that the party had two minds about joining the upcoming government. But Lamichhane put those doubts to rest by staking claim on the Home Ministry.

The Cabinet has Damodar Bhandari, Jwala Kumari Sah, Rajendra Rai from the UML and Abdul Khan from the Janamat Party as ministers without portfolio. The work division of these ministers will be decided later on, most probably in the second round of Cabinet expansion.

Dahal, chair of the Maoist party, had struck an understanding with UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli, ditching a ruling dispensation with the Nepali Congress. The deal materialized after indications that the NC, which led the erstwhile five-party ruling coalition and emerged as the largest party in Nov 20 federal and provincial elections, appeared unlikely to give the Maoist party any major role in the upcoming dispensation. NC’s last-ditch effort to salvage the coalition failed, effectively relegating the largest party in the House of Representatives to the opposition bench. What’s more, this failure, in all likelihood, will consign the Congress to the opposition bench in all seven provinces.         

RSP, Janamat Party and the Laxman Tharu-led Nagarik Unmukti Party also came on board at Sunday’s Dahal-Oli meet at the latter’s residence in Balkot, ensuring the Maoist-led coalition a 170-strong majority in the House of Representatives that has a total of 275 seats.

Unlike in the beginning of his earlier stints as prime minister, Dahal this time took the oath donning Daura-Suruwal, capping it all with the Bhadgaunle Topi.

Is this minor change an indication of a more effective and efficient premiership in the offing? Or the adage that the more things change, the more they remain the same will hold true, again? Only time will tell. 

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDLZkfhY8K0

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