KATHMANDU, AUGUST 29
The Parliamentary Party of the newly established CPN-Unified Socialist unanimously elected party Chair Madhav Kumar Nepal as parliamentary party leader. The meeting also elected lawmaker Beduram Bhusal as the party's leader in the National Assembly, the Upper House of the Parliament.
A meeting of the parliamentary party also delegated power to Nepal to pick those party leaders who will join the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led coalition government, said CPN-US leader Birodh Khatiwada. In response to a journalist's query, Khatiwada said the Cabinet could be reshuffled within four to five days. "The Mahantha Thakur-led Democratic Socialist Party is holding its meeting.
Sometimes PM Deuba looks for auspicious date for doing certain things, so the Cabinet reshuffle will depend on these things, but I do not think it will be delayed by more than four days," he added. In response to another journalist's query, Khatiwada said that there was no dispute about the number of ministries his party would get in Deuba's Cabinet.
" We will be content even if we get four or five or six or seven or eight ministries," he added.
Khatiwada said that UML representatives in the provincial assemblies had 21 days to choose between the UML and the CPN-US. If Bagmati Chief Minister Astalaxmi Shakya and Province 1 Chief Minister Bhim Achayra chose to stay with UML then his party would seek to change the government and form coalition government in those provinces.
"It is natural for us to form our coalition government in the provinces," he clarified. The meeting also formed a five-member committee to draft the statute of the parliamentary party.
Addressing the PP meeting, Nepal said that he would not enter a unity deal with any political party anytime soon.
"Some people are spreading rumour that I will merge our party with other parties and I will be somebody else's cadre.
"Let me make clear that we have a strong base across the country. We have our party structures in all villages, wards and districts," Nepal added.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 30 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
