Chief Minister Mangal Bahadur Shahi Fails to Expand Cabinet After One Week

Surkhet. Even after completing one week since his appointment as Chief Minister, Mangal Bahadur Shahi has not been able to expand his cabinet. He has not been able to expand the cabinet due to disagreements in 'power sharing' with the ruling coalition parties. He was appointed as the fifth Chief Minister last Tuesday and took the oath and assumed office alone on Wednesday. Shahi became Chief Minister with the support of UML. However, he has not been able to appoint other ministers yet as the distribution of ministries has not been agreed upon. Chief Minister Shahi said that the cabinet will be expanded soon. 'It seems there has been some delay in terms of homework for cooperation among the ruling coalition parties and in all other aspects,' he told Ratopati. 'Discussions are ongoing with the ruling coalition parties for that.' He stated that the issue of 'power sharing' in the province is being discussed at the center as well as in the province through discussions and consultations. In Karnali, which has a 7-member cabinet, UML has claimed 4 ministries. However, the Nepali Communist Party, which is leading the government, is stating that the ministries should be divided 3/3 besides the Chief Minister. Sources say that the CPN has put forward the argument that 'power sharing' should be done according to the number of seats, as the CPN has 14 seats and UML has 10 seats.