Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal expanded his cabinet for the fourth time on Wednesday, including ministers from the Maoists Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF), CPN (Marxist Leninist-Socialist) and CPN (United). The 14 newly appointed ministers were sworn in by the Prime Minister in the presence of President Ram Baran Yadav at Shital Niwas in the evening
Deputy Prime Minister and Maoist leader in the government, Krishna Bahadur Mahara has been appointed the minister of the much debated Home Ministry.
Khanal inducted eight ministers and four state ministers from the UCPN (Maoist), three ministers and a state minister from the MJF and one minister from each CPN (United) and CPN (ML-Socialist).
MJF chairman has been appointed the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Other Maoist ministers appointed are:
Agni Sapkota (Information and Communication)
Shakti Bahadur Basnet (Health)
Jayapuri Gharti (Women, Children and Social Welfare)
Bishwa nath Shah (Peace and Reconstruction)
Mahendra Paswan (Industry)
Prabhu Shah (Law)
Hit Bahadur Tamang (Youth and Sports)
Ram Charan Choudhary (Land Reform).
Dharma Sheela Chapagain (Communication)
Devi Khadka (Physical Planning and Works)
Dhruba Kumar Limbu (Tourism)
Hakibullah Khan (Land Reform)
PM Khanal also inducted his close aide, UML lawmaker Ghanshyam Bhusal, into the cabinet as minister without portfolio.
Similarly, Hari Narayan Choudhary and Mohd. Istiyak Rai have been appointed Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives and Minister for Labour and Transport Management respectively. Nandan Kumar Dutt has been appointed Minister of State for Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives.
Sunil Manandhar of CPN (United) and Khagendra Prasain of CPN (ML-Socialist) have been appointed Minister for Environment and Minister for Culture respectively.