Nepal’s ruling alliance meeting concludes without agreement on power-sharing

The top leaders of four major political parties in the ruling alliances here on Wednesday met at Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kumar Dahal ''Prachanda's'' residence to discuss a power-sharing arrangement but failed to agree on a deal, according to sources at the Prime Minister’s Office.

Wednesday's meeting at Baluwatar was a preliminary one among the ruling alliances and their leaders, including “Prachanda”, Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba, chairman of CPN-Unified Socialist Madhav Kumar Nepal, and chairman of Janata Samajwadi Party Nepal Upendra Yadav.

The meeting mainly dwelt on issues relating to cabinet expansion and bills tabled in Parliament, Prime Minister's press coordinator Surya Kiran Sharma said.

Power sharing and the distribution of ministerial portfolios have become major bottlenecks among the members of the ruling alliance as the demand for cabinet posts is exceeding the number of ministries available, according to political observers.

Prachanda had assured to complete expansion of the government within four days after the swearing-in ceremony of the newly appointed Vice President on March 20.

According to sources, the Nepali Congress has demanded 10 ministries, CPN-Maoist Centre demanded five, including the Prime Minister, CPN-Unified Socialist and Janata Samajwadi Party Nepal three each, Loktantrik Samajwadi Party and Janamat Party two each, and Nepal Samajwadi Party, Aam Janata Party, as well as Nagarik Unmukti Party, has demanded one ministry each.

However, the total number of available ministries is confined to 25.

There are at present only six cabinet ministers, including the Prime Minister and one minister of state in the Prachanda-led government, as ministers from CPN-UML, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, and Rashtriya Swotantra Party had resigned from the posts following the break up of the seven-party coalition.

Prachanda is overburdened with about 16 ministerial portfolios, including the ministries of Home, Finance, Foreign, Industry and Commerce, Science and Technology, and Agriculture.

“It will take a few more days to complete the task of cabinet expansion as there are many parties who have cast votes in favour of the Prachanda-led government during the vote of confidence and many are aspiring to join the government,” remarked Gagan Thapa, Nepali Congress general secretary.