KATHMANDU, April 18: Three leaders from the CPN-UML and one from the Nagarik Unmukti Party (NUP) are set to join the government in Lumbini Province, taking oath today as ministers without portfolio. UML and NUP have finalized the names of the ministers who will be part of the Lumbini Province government.

According to Chet Narayan Acharya, the deputy leader of the UML parliamentary party in the provincial assembly, Dinesh Panthi, Arjun KC and Ratna Bahadur Khatri from the party are going to participate in the government.

Similarly, Dharma Bahadur Chaudhary is also going to participate in the government on behalf of the NUP.

Although the names of the ministers have been finalized, they have not been assigned any specific ministry yet. All ministers will take the oath as ministers without portfolio today at 5 PM, according to Acharya.

When Jokh Bahadur Mahara was appointed as the chief minister on April 5, he allocated one ministerial position each to the CPN-UML, CPN (Maoist Center), and Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP). Accordingly, Bhumishwar Dhakal from the UML took oath as the Minister for Finance, Dipendra Pun from the Maoist Center as the Minister for Health and Bhandari Lal Ahir from the JSP took the oath as the Minister for Agriculture.

Lumbini has 10 ministries including the Chief Minister. According to the current allocation of ministerial berths among the parties in the new ruling alliance, two more ministries are yet to be created by splitting the existing ministries.

However, provincial chairman of JSP, Ashok Yadav, said that the party will not join the government because the written agreement to allocate two ministries to JSP has not been followed.

 
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