Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' is making preparations to reshuffle his cabinet, a year after he was appointed as the head of the government.
An agreement has been reached at the top leadership level of the ruling alliance to reshuffle the incumbent ministers, sources have said.
On December 26, it is going to be one year since Prachanda was appointed as the Prime Minister of Nepal. The homework of reshuffling cabinet members will start once Prachanda returns from Dubai.
Nepali Congress, one of the coalition partners, has suggested to the Prime Minister that the cabinet be restructured only after the National Assembly elections. In doing so, the incumbent ministers will get to work for one more month. Based on this, the leaders of the ruling party say that Prachanda will appoint new ministers from the last week of December.
Meen Bishwakarma, head of the publicity department of the Nepali Congress, said that there was an agreement to reshuffle the ministers after the National Assembly elections. The elections of the National Assembly will be held on January 25.
"There is no need to reshuffle the government for the status quo," Bishwakarma told Nepalkhabar, "The alliance will try to solve the current crisis by changing the reshuffling."
"Nepal's economy is weakening. It did not return to normal even after a year," Bishwakarma said, adding, "Irregularities and confusion were also seen in the home administration. There have been criticisms that corruption is thriving under the cover of an anti-corruption campaign. Frustration grew among political parties and people. That is why there is an informal discussion among the top leaders about the cabinet reshuffle. That work will proceed after the National Assembly elections."
A leader of the CPN (Maoist Center) also said that preparations are under change the ministers. "After one year of the formation of this government, I am wondering whether the cabinet should be changed," the leader quoted the Prime Minister as saying.
"Except for the Prime Minister, all the ministers will be changed, after the last week of December," said the leader.
Dissatisfaction will increase within the party if some ministers are removed and new ones are added, but if the entire team is changed, there will be no room for anyone to be dissatisfied, so the top leader is planning to change the entire team."
Prachanda has already discussed with the top leaders of the power coalition Nepali Congress, CPN (Unified Socialist), and other top leaders.
However, for that, there should be an agreement on the ministerial portfolios within the coalition. The NC is asking for the Home Ministry. It has told Prime Minister Prachanda about this many times.
It has indicated that it is ready to leave the Finance Ministry to the Maoist Center. Dissatisfaction with the work of Finance Minister Prakasharan Mahat is also growing within the NC. Many leaders of the coalition are of the opinion that Mahat has not taken any initiative to improve the ailing economy.
NC leaders are furious with Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha for dragging former home minister Balkrishna Khand into the fake Bhutanese refugee case. Congress has been pressuring Prime Minister Prachanda to remove Home Minister Shrestha, but the Prime Minister has been saying that removing Home Minister alone would not send a good message.
Rajendra Pandey, the vice chairman of Unified Socialist, also said that it is time for the government to accelerate.
Pandey said, "Some people are trying to mislead the people by criticizing the government. It is high time to make the coalition government successful."
"Some of the incumbent ministers have not been able to do a good job, their performance is not enough, it is not enough to meet the expectations of the people," he added, "When we sent the minister, we had specified a one-year term. It will be a year in February, but why wait until then? It has been raised that the people should be administered services by sending the best possible team."
The cabinet led by Prime Minister Prachanda includes NC, Maoist Center, Unified Socialist, Janata Samajwadi Party, Janamat Party, Nagarik Unmukti Party and Loktantrik Samajbadi Party.
Prachanda has discussed this with Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba. Deuba has suggested that it should done after the National Assembly elections.
Agni Sapkota, Vice Chairman and the spokesperson of the ruling party Maoist Center claimed that preparations have not yet been made.
"In politics, anything can happen at any time," said Sapkota, adding, "The Prime Minister has focused on making the government's performance effective." The prime minister reserves the right to change the ministers so that it is convenient for him to run the government."
After receiving the information about the cabinet reshuffle, some Congress leaders have intensified their lobbying to join the government. In the government led by Prachanda, Vice President Purna Bahadur Khadka is leading from the Congress.
However, NC President Deuba is in favor of taking steps so as to strike balance unity within his party.
The leaders claim that Deuba has agreed to reshuffle the cabinet to balance this time by managing the leaders of the Koirala camp in the Prachanda government.
