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Kathmandu Wednesday February 07, 2001 Magh 25, 2057.
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Cabinet reshuffle today
Deuba camp splits
By Ameet Dhakal
KATHMANDU, Feb 6 – The minority Deuba camp in the ruling Nepali Congress
(NC) has split with at least 5 lawmakers including three powerful former ministers joining
hands with Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.
Former home minister and powerful leader of the Deuba camp Khum Bahadur
Khadka, former finance minister Dr Ram Saran Mahat and former Minister for Industry Omkar
Prasad Shrestha have defected from the Deuba camp along with other lawmakers and have
opted to join the government.
With this latest development, Prime Minister Koirala today evening submitted
a 37-member new cabinet list to the Royal Palace. The reshuffle of the 11-month old
Koirala government will be announced tomorrow morning, a source close to Prime Minister
said.
He also informed The Kahmandu Post that all these faces deserting the Deuba
camp have been given berth in the new cabinet. Khum Bahadur Khadka is likely to get
Construction Ministry,
Dr Ram Saran Mahat Finance Ministry and Omkar Shrestha Tourism Ministry.
The source also said that the new cabinet will have 18 cabinet ministers, 14
state ministers and 5 assistant ministers.
With the reshuffle, at least two ministers are likely to lose their posts. Dr
Ram Baran Yadav, Minister for Health and state minister Ram Bahadur Gurung will be among
the outgoing ministers in tomorrow’s reshuffle, said the source. Mahesh Acharya will
also lose his Finance Ministry portfolio but retain Defense Ministry. Likewise,
Information Minister Jaya Prakash Ananda Gupta is likely to be transferred to Health
Ministry. The information ministry will go to Baldev Sharma Majganya, who is currently
state minister for Agriculture.
The defection of powerful leaders from its camp has come as a shock to the
minority Deuba camp, who was bargaining on "terms" to enter the government. In a
bid to strengthen its position, the camp was bargaining respectable slots to its members
in the party’s Central Working Committee and other crucial party organs as
precondition to join the government. Koirala is yet to announce his full-fledged CWC.
According to the amended party statute, the president nominates fifty per cent of the CWC
members.
Return of powerful CWC member, Khum Bahadur Khadka, who had defected from the
Koirala camp five months ago, on the eve of crucial parliamentary winter session has given
the camp a fresh breather.
Khadka had left the Koirala camp five months back demanding that Koirala
relinquish one of the two positions (Prime Minister and NC party president) before the
party general convention, which concluded in Pokhara few weeks back.
Prime Minister Koirala was working frantically since last week to accommodate
the minority camp in the government in a bid to strengthen his position to face the
parliament which is slated to begin its winter session on Thursday. The major opposition
parties have already demanded Koirala’s resignation for his alleged role in the Lauda
Air controversy and have said that they would use both the parliament and streets to pull
him down.
Probable new faces in cabinet
Khum Bhadur Khadka (Construction)
Govinda Raj Joshi (Local Development)
Dr Ram S Mahat (Finance)
Prakash Koirala ( Forest)
Omkar Shrestha (Tourism)
Ram Janam Choudhary
Momhad Aftab Alam
Puskar Nath Ojha
Romi Gauchan
Shiv Bahadur Basnet
Mahadev Gurung
Palten Gurung
Ananda Dhungana
Hari Sapkota
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