Kathmandu, November 21
While removing six ministers and three state ministers from his Cabinet to replace them by nine other leaders, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has changed the portfolios of two ministers only. Upendra Yadav, the central committee chairman of Samajwadi Party, has been sent to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs from the Ministry of Health and Population.
On the other hand, he removed another Samajwadi leader Surendra Yadav from the position of state minister for health, and appointed the Nepal Communist Party’s Nawa Raj Rawat to replace him.
Sources in both the NCP and the Samajwadi Party say Oli and the NCP leadership did not consult Yadav or any Samajwadi leader about the reshuffle. This move, hence, has given a message that Oli is not happy with the party’s performance in the government.
An NCP source claims Oli, in fact, was willing to remove both Yadav and Urban Development Minister Mohammad Istiyak Rai from Cabinet. “But, another chairman of the party, Prachanda (Pushpa Kamal Dahal) advised against the removal. That’s how Yadav and Rai were saved,” the source says, adding the NCP now expects the Samajwadi Party to leave the government.
Whereas Yadav is currently in New Delhi, the party’s federal council chair Baburam Bhattarai is also outside Kathmandu, hence the party has not discussed the next step, a Samajwadi leader informs.
