January 18: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Tuesday expanded the Council of Ministers, inducting 12 new ministers in the cabinet.

Dahal also inducted three state ministers from the parties that backed him as the prime minister. However, Janata Samajbadi Party and Nagarik Unmukti Party, which supported Dahal’s bid to become the prime minister, opted to stay out of the government.

The Council of Ministers now has 23 ministers, including four deputy prime ministers (DPM) and three state ministers.

The newly-appointed DPMs, ministers and state ministers are from

CPN (Maoist Centre), CPN-UML, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Rastriya Swatantra Party and Janamat Party.

President Bidhya Devi Bhandari administered the oath of office and secrecy to the cabinet ministers amid a function at Shital Niwas on Tuesday.

The prime minister has kept two ministerial portfolios including the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Forest and Environment with himself in order to hand over those ministries to other coalition partners.

The cabinet has eight ministers from UML, six from Maoist Centre, four each from RSP and RPP and one from Janamat Party.

As per the constitution, the cabinet cannot have more than 25 ministers.

The members of the Council of Ministers is as follows:

Puspa Kamal Dahal: PM, Minister for Forests and Environment and Minister for Youth and Sports

Bishnu Paudel: DPM and Minister for Finance

Narayan Kaji Shrestha: DPM and Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport

Rabi Lamichhane: DPM and Minister for Home Affairs

Rajendra Lingden: DPM and Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation

Rekha sharma: Minister for Communications and Information Technology

Bikram Pandey: Minister for Urban Development

Jwala Kumari Shah: Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development

Damodar Bhandari: Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies

Rajendra Rai: Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation

Abdul Khan: Minister for Water Supply

Dr Bimala Rai Paudyal: Minister for Foreign Affairs

Padam Giri: Minister for Health and Population

Bhagawati Chaudhari: Minister for Women, Children and Senior Citizens

Hari Prasad Upreti: Minister for Defence

Sudan Kirati: Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation

Aman lal Modi: Minister for Federal Affairs and General Administration

Shishir Khanal: Minister for Education, Science and Technology

Dol Prasad Aryal: Minister for Labor, Employment and Social Security

Dhruba Pradhan: Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs

Sushila Sirpali Thakuri: State Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation

Dr Toshima Karki: State Minister for Health and Population

Deepak Singh: State Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation

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