Kathmandu, March 16

Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal, which has decided to join the KP Sharma Oli government, did not do so today when the prime minister expanded his Cabinet for the third time.

Chair of FSF-N Upendra Yadav said his party was still negotiating the contents of the agreement with the left alliance and he was not sure when his party would join the government.

General Secretary of FSF-N Ram Sahay Yadav said his party did not join the government mainly because it had not reached an agreement with the left alliance on political issues, including constitution amendment.

The FSF-N has sought left alliance’s commitment to amend the constitution. It wants to remove the requirement of the consent of majority of the provinces to revise provincial boundaries.

Ram Sahay Yadav said the negotiators discussed the contents of the agreement that the three parties could sign, but they had not finalised the content yet. He said his party would discuss the names of the leaders who would join the government only after it reached a political agreement with the left alliance.

CPN-UML leader Subas Chandra Nembang said the three parties —  the UML, the CPN-MC and the FSF-N  — had already reached an understanding on the number of ministries that the FSF-N could get, but the party did not join the government mainly due to lack of their own preparation.

“We have agreed in principle to amend the constitution. We will discuss later how we want to amend which issues of the constitution,” Nembang added.