The five newly appointed ministers took oath before provincial chief Nazir Mian on Monday evening. The cabinet reshuffle came at the very beginning of the budget due to the turmoil within the Congress.
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All ministers/ministers of state from the Congress in the Sudurpaschim provincial government were recalled on Monday and replaced by new ones.
The newly appointed ministers include Bikram Singh Dhami as Minister of Economic Affairs, Bel Bahadur Rana Magar as Minister of Social Development, Man Bahadur Rawal as Minister of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment, Junakumari Dani as Minister of State for Economic Affairs and Madhudevi Bharti as Minister of State for Social Development. They took oath before Provincial Chief Nazir Miyan on Monday evening. The situation of reshuffle of all ministers has come to a standstill due to the turmoil within the Congress.
There are only four days left before the day when the budget for the next fiscal year should be presented. At such a time, the government should be busy preparing the budget by drawing up a blueprint for provincial development. However, in the Far West, the game of government reshuffle has become more important than budget preparation. The game of government reshuffle has started for about two weeks. The Chief Minister and ministers are all busy trying to protect their respective positions.
There is a Congress-led UML joint government in the Far West. On Monday, the Congress reshuffled all its ministers. Earlier, Bahadur Singh Thapa, Minister for Economic Affairs, Social Development Minister Meghraj Khadka, Minister for Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment Shivraj Bhatta, Minister of State for Social Development Saraswati Khadka and Minister of State for Economic Affairs Prakash Bahadur Bam were recalled from the Congress quota and new ministers were sent.
The cabinet reshuffle came at the beginning of the budget due to the turmoil within the Congress. Chief Minister Shah was in trouble after nine Congress MPs filed a no-confidence motion against Chief Minister Kamal Bahadur Shah, who is also the leader of the parliamentary party, on June 18.
Of the total 18 Congress MPs, Whip Geeta Chaudhary, MPs Man Bahadur Rawal, Diwan Singh Bista, Padam Bahadur Shahi, Dammari Mahara, Tulsi Devkota, Bel Bahadur Rana Magar, Lalita Sunar and Junakumari Dani signed the no-confidence motion. They are from the group led by Chairman Gagan Thapa.
MP Diwan Singh Bista, who led the no-confidence motion, had claimed that nine would be a majority since MP Prakash Bahadur Deuba had been in the US for months out of the total 18 MPs of the Congress. But within a few hours, MP Dammari Mahara announced that he had withdrawn his signature at a press conference at the Chief Minister's Office, leaving Chief Minister Shah with eight MPs.
After the registration of a petition against Chief Minister Kamal Bahadur Shah, party Joint General Secretary Udaya Shumsher Rana and central member Ramesh KC Dhangadhi came to resolve the dispute. The no-confidence motion was finally settled with Minister Bhagbanda on Rana's initiative.
In the UML coalition government, the Congress has six members, including the Chief Minister, three ministers and two ministers of state. Earlier, all the ministers who were on the side of the Congress were from the Chief Minister (Deuba group). In the division, it was agreed that the disgruntled group (supporting Chairman Thapa) and the Chief Minister's party would get two ministers and one minister of state. The Chief Minister's party had easily finalized the names of the ministers in its share. Earlier, Bikram Singh Dhami, who was the Chief Whip, was appointed as the Minister of Economic Affairs, while Madhu Bharti was made the Minister of State for Social Affairs. However, the disgruntled party seemed to have a hard time choosing ministers. Although Diwan Singh Bista of the disgruntled party said that he would not be a minister, there was a scuffle between the other seven members. The said group had requested the Center to finalize the names after it could not finalize the names within the province. In the meantime, the names of various people who would become ministers were being made public till Monday evening. But finally, the party center sent the names of Man Bahadur Rawal, Bel Bahadur Rana and Junakumar Dani to the Chief Minister.
After the Congress decided to reshuffle all the ministers, the UML also prepared for a ministerial reshuffle on Sunday. According to sources in the Chief Minister's Office, the current ministers were recalled from the UML center on Sunday and the names of new ministers were also given. The final preparations for the ministerial reshuffle were halted after party leader Rajendra Singh Rawal and party chairman KP Sharma Oli instructed the party not to reshuffle the ministers at present while the UML parliamentary party was meeting on Monday afternoon to inform the Chief Minister about the formal decision of the ministerial reshuffle.
The UML had three ministers and one minister of state. Hira Sarki is the minister of internal affairs and law, Bir Bahadur Thapa is the minister of land management and agriculture, Surendra Bahadur Pal is the minister of state for physical infrastructure development, and Nirmala Devi Saund is the minister of state for physical infrastructure. By Monday afternoon, preparations were underway to recall all four of them and send new ones. Not only that, final preparations were made to send Chakra Bahadur Malla as Minister of Internal Affairs and Law, Santosh Kumari Sharma Thapa as Minister of Physical Infrastructure, Daman Bahadur Bhandari as Minister of Land Management and Agriculture and Janaki Air as Minister of State for Physical Infrastructure.
‘The Chief Minister had received the same information from the party, so he had thanked all the ministers in today’s cabinet meeting,’ said the Chief Minister’s Press Advisor Dammar Bam. But the preparations were put on hold after Chairman Oli’s call at the last moment. UML cadres raised slogans against party leader Rajendra Singh Rawal after the parliamentary party stopped making a formal decision. Immediately after that, the cadres locked the UML provincial office.
A power struggle began on Sunday after it was made public that UML would reshuffle its ministers. A group of UML had started trying to stop the current ones. Finally, an MP said that Chairman Oli had instructed not to change the ministers over a call from Nirudevi Pal, who is the head of Chairman Oli’s secretariat. According to UML cadres, party leader Rajendra Singh Rawal was also against the previous directive to change ministers.
Former ministers say that such a change of ministers at the beginning of the budget will not allow for proper planning for long-term development. ‘It will be difficult for a new minister to understand the budget process in four days,’ says MP Naresh Kumar Shahi, who is also a former Minister of Economic Affairs. ‘This year’s budget will also be a mess.’
UML MP and Chairman of the Social Development Committee Dharmaraj Pathak also says that it was wrong. ‘The province is already at the center of criticism. Such activities at the beginning of the budget increase resentment towards the province. "Either it should have been changed a little earlier, or it could have been done a little later," said President Pathak. "After the Congress changed ministers, the directive on Sunday to change ministers in UML also came from the party center, and the directive on Monday to keep the same ones also came from the center." Stating that it would not have made a difference even if it had been done a little earlier, he said that the time and method were not appropriate.
