Congress parliamentary party leader Sher Bahadur Deuba became the prime minister in Bhadra 2052 with the support of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party. The main opposition party, UML, had filed a no-confidence motion in the parliament on Falgun 29, 2052, on the condition of making Lokendra Bahadur Chand, the parliamentary party leader of the RPP, the prime minister, to topple the Deuba government. The motion began the countdown of the government's days.

After the no-confidence motion, a two-pronged struggle had clearly begun in the RPP. Even after the party got a prime minister, Chairman Surya Bahadur Thapa had not cooperated with him out of personal 'ego', said RPP parliamentary party leader Chand. Chairman Thapa had been adamant that the Deuba-led government should be strengthened. The no-confidence motion failed in the vote held in the House of Representatives on Chaitra 11, 2052.

But this could lead to a split in the RPP and UML's efforts to make Chand the prime minister were still going on internally. Therefore, there was a fear that RPP MPs might betray the government. UML leaders were expressing that the Deuba government would not survive. Therefore, the possibility of another no-confidence motion was not ruled out.

At that time, there was a growing fear that RPP MPs would turn against the Deuba government in the lure of attractive ministries and ministers. To stop this fear, Deuba expanded the cabinet for the third time on 2053 Jestha 4, 8 months after becoming Prime Minister. He added a Minister of State and three Assistant Ministers to form a 48-member cabinet. To maintain power, Deuba formed the largest cabinet in the history of Nepal.

The cabinet members added were Bishnu Bikram Thapa and Khobhari Ray Yadav of the RPP, Anish Ansari of Sadbhavana, and independent MP Moti Prasad Pahadi. Pahadi became the Minister of State for Justice and Law, while Thapa became the Minister of Commerce, Yadav the Minister of Agriculture, and Ansari the Assistant Minister of Supplies. All but three MPs from the RPP became ministers. Out of the 19 MPs of the RPP, all but Chairman Thapa, Leader Chand, and MP Mirzadil Saad Beg became ministers.

Sadbhavana Party Chairman Gajendra Narayan Singh, who had three MPs, was the Minister of Supplies, while Ansari was also made a minister. Sadbhavana's Hridayesh Tripathi was expelled by the party. Numerically, 100% of Sadbhavana's MPs became ministers. Three independent MPs who supported the government, Sharad Singh Bhandari, Moti Prasad Pahadi, and Jyotendra Mohan Chaudhary, all became ministers. Two assistant ministers were made in the Commerce and Agriculture ministries. This was probably the first time that there were two assistant ministers in the same ministry. Congress leaders had said that Deuba had made those MPs additional ministers as a reward for surviving a no-confidence motion when the RPP was in a state of division. Some said that Deuba had fulfilled the assurance he had given to the RPP, Sadbhavana, and independent MPs at that time to defeat the no-confidence motion. Understanding the initial reaction to the expansion of the cabinet, Prime Minister Deuba had prepared to promote RPP and Sadbhavana party ministers. The RPP's Minister of State had sought cabinet ministers and the assistant ministers had sought ministers of state.

Deuba was criticized within and outside the party for forming a 48-member cabinet. Congress Vice President Shailaja Acharya had said that a working committee meeting would be held to discuss the expansion of the cabinet. A week after the cabinet expansion, on 10 Jestha, 2053, at a meeting organized after the foundation stone laying ceremony of Nepal's largest factory Eastern Sugar Mills in Sunsari, Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala had said that the size of the cabinet had to be increased due to the greed of the RPP.

He had said that the RPP would never become a party if RPP Chairman Thapa and leader Chand did not follow the principle of collective leadership. Koirala had revealed that the trend of placing their own people in the government by collectively interfering in political appointments has increased.

Congress leaders had said that in the next session, UML supported the RPP and made almost all the RPP MPs ministers to prevent it by supporting it again. The previous no-confidence motion had proven that the RPP ministers were intent on toppling the government by signing the no-confidence motion against themselves. That is why Deuba had increased the number of ministers to 48 in the game of keeping the government alive. There was a lot of criticism not only within and outside the parties but also in the media regarding the size of the cabinet.

Kantipur Daily had published a news on 2053 Jestha 5 under the headline ‘One Minister of State and Three Assistant Ministers Added’. On the 7th of the same month, Kantipur had published a satirical cartoon on the front page showing journalists having to call the Prime Minister in because they did not see him in the crowd of ministers. The Kantipur of the 11th published a news article titled 'The reason for the large cabinet is the greed of the RPP for power,' with reference to Congress President Girija Prasad's statement on the issue of the cabinet itself.