Kathmandu, February 20

President Bidhya Devi Bhandari today approved the three names recommended by the government for the National Assembly.

A meeting of the Council of Ministers presided over by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli recommended to the head of the state that Yubaraj Khatiwada, Ram Narayan Bidari and Bimala Rai Paudel be appointed to the NA, according to the PM’s press coordinator Chetan Adhikari. With the president’s approval to appoint Khatiwada, Bidari and Paudel to the three vacant NA seats, the NA today got full shape.

Article 86 (2B) of the constitution has provisioned that president can appoint three NA members on the government’s recommendation.

Former governor of Nepal Rastra Bank and former vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission Khatiwada and former NPC member Poudel were recommended by the UML, while Bidari was CPN-Maoist Centre’s nominee.

Khatiwada was the vice-chairman of the NPC from June 2009 to March 2010. He was NRB’s governor for five years till March 2015. He was again appointed the vice-chairman of NPC in 2015 by the Oli-led government.

Former NPC member Paudel is an expert in public policy making, especially in areas of social protection, gender equality, social inclusion and natural resource governance.

Senior lawyer Bidari was member of the second Constituent Assembly, which also served as the Parliament.

Earlier, the KP Sharma Oli-led government withdrew the names recommended by the erstwhile Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government for the three NA seats. The Deuba-led government had recommended Gopal Basnet, Krishna Paudel and Chandani Joshi.