Nepal PM expands Cabinet, includes 13 ministers from NC

From Shirish B Pradhan Kathmandu, Aug 26 (PTI) Nepal Prime Minister Prachandatoday inducted 13 new ministers from major coalition partnerNepali Congress into his Cabinet, including the importantMinister of Foreign Affairs, taking its total strength to 31. With that expansion, Prachanda’s Cabinet has taken a fullshape. President Bidya Devi Bhandari administered oath to thenewly-appointed ministers during a ceremony at ‘Sheetal Niwas’or the Rastrapati Bhawan here. NC president Sher Bahadur Deuba and senior leader RamChandra Poudel, other than Premier Prachanda, attended theswearing-in ceremony. Those sworn-in included: Prakash Sharan Mahat, Ministerfor Foreign Affairs; Bal Krishna Khand, Minister for Defence;Sita Devi Yadav, Minister for Peace and Reconstruction; andJeevan Bahadur Shahi, Minister for Culture, Tourism and CivilAviation. The porfolios of nine others were also assigned today. Earlier, the Nepali Congress had sent Bimalendra Nidhi andRamesh Lekhak to the Cabinet as Deputy Prime Minister andMinister of Home Affairs, and the Minister for PhysicalInfrastructure and Transport respectively. Prachanda was elected Prime Minister on August 4 for thesecond time after being briefly in power in 2009. He succeededCPN-UML chairman K P Sharma Oli. PTI SBPABH