Biratnagar, July 9: Three leaders, including Jeevan Acharya, were appointed as ministers in Koshi province on Sunday and took the oath of office and secrecy. State Chief Parshuram Khapung administered the oath to Rajendra Karki of Maoist Centre and Ram Kumar Khatri of Nepali Congress along with Acharya.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thapa appointed three ministers including Acharya and expanded the cabinet to six members for the first time.
He has appointed Acharya from Morang as Minister of Economic Affairs and Planning, while Rajendra Karki from Sankhuwasabha from Maoist Centre and Ram Kumar Khatri from Udayapur who is believed to be near to Congress leader Shekhar Koirala has been appointed as minister. Acharya has been appointed minister for the second time.
Thapa, who was appointed Chief Minister on Thursday with the support of Speaker Baburam Gautam, took oath on Friday by appointing Okhaldhunga’s Pradip Kumar Sunuwar and CPN (Unified Socialist) Kamal Prasad Jabegu from Panchthar as ministers.
Acharya was the Minister of Tourism, Forest and Environment for four months in the outgoing Hikmat Kumar Karki-led government. A controversy broke out in the Maoist parliamentary party after Acharya expressed his desire to become a minister again. After the dispute escalated, the Maoists assigned the responsibility of party leader Indra Bahadur Angbo, party’s state in-charge Ram Karki and state president Hark Bahadur Nemwang to choose the name of the minister for participation in the government. According to the Maoist state MP, they recommended the name of Rajendra Karki along with Acharya as the minister under pressure. At the party meeting held on Saturday, the Maoists decided to send Narayan Bahadur Magar from Udayapur as a minister. But after Congress appointed Khatri Minister of Udayapur, Karki’s name was recommended to balance the district.
Meanwhile, CPN (Unified Socialist) has expressed dissatisfaction with the ministerial selection. It is understood that the party is not satisfied with the fact that Khinu Longwa Limbu, the Member of Parliament of Ilam, was not given the Minister of Physical Infrastructure Development. Rajendra Kumar Rai, the leader of Unified Socialist Party, said that the atmosphere of consensus and cooperation within the alliance has been broken because the minister was appointed without consent. He said that he would not give a vote of confidence to Chief Minister Thapa if he proceeded with the same process. The dispute led to the boycott of the Unified Socialist in the oath taking program.
Meanwhile, CPN UML has already filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court on Friday saying that the process of forming the new government of the state is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing on Sunday for the hearing of the petition.
UML parliamentary party leader Hikmat Kumar Karki has filed a petition against the decision to appoint Uddhav Thapa, the leader of the coalition party, as the chief minister after showing the majority of 47 state MPs required for the formation of the government with the signature of the Speaker.
