Nepal PM Deuba expands cabinet for seventh time in 5 months

Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Friday expanded his cabinet for the seventh time in the past five months of taking charge by inducting eight new ministers.

Deuba inducted one Deputy Prime Minister, three ministers and four state ministers from the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP).

RPP President Kamal Thapa has been appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister, but his portfolio is yet to be fixed.

Dina Nath Giri, Bikram Bahadur Thapa and Jayanta Chand are appointed as new Ministers of cabinet, but again their portfolio remains undecided as of now.

Likewise, Kunti Kumari Shahi, Bhaskar Bhadra, Kanta Bhattarai and Sushil Shrestha are appointed as state ministers.

Prime Minister Deuba has sent all the names of newly appointed ministers to the office of the President.

The swearing in ceremony of the newly appointed ministers is expected to take place on Saturday.

With the latest expansion, the total strength of Deuba's cabinet has reached 64.

The latest move comes amid the reports of cabinet reshuffle that can take place before elections after the unification attempt between the Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) and Maoist Center (MC), which have angst the incumbent Prime Minister.

Deuba was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Nepal by President Bhandari on June 7, after the 70-year-old leader secured 388 votes out of a total of 558 votes, cast in the 601 -member legislative parliament.

He has come under severe criticisms from various quarters for the presiding over the biggest-ever cabinet in the country's history.