KATHMANDU: Nepal's newly-elected Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli today inducted four new ministers, increasing the strength of his cabinet to seven.
President Bidya Devi Bhandari administered the oath of office and secrecy to the newly appointed ministers at Sheetal Niwas in Kathmandu.
Oli appointed Ishwar Pokharel (CPN-UML) as Defense Minister, Dr Yubaraj Khatiwada (CPN-UML) as Finance Minister, Ram Bahadur Thapa (CPN-Maoist Centre) as Home Minister and Matrika Yadav (CPN-Maoist Centre) as Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies.
Khatiwada, a former governor of Nepal's Central Bank, should be the federal parliament member within six months after being appointed as the minister.
After his appointment as Prime Minister early this month, Oli had formed a small Cabinet by appointing Lal Babu Pandit as Minister for Population and Environment and Tham Maya Thapa as Minister for Women Children and Social Welfare.
This time, no one has been made Deputy Prime Minister.
Earlier, there were speculation that Pokharel from UML and Thapa from Maoist Centre would get the portfolio of deputy Prime Minister.
In the next round of expansion, ministers from other parties such as Federal Socialist Party are expected to include in the cabinet.
The Left alliance of the CPN-UML, led by Oli, and CPN-Maoist Centre, led by Prachanda, had in December secured 174 seats in the 275-member Parliament in the historic provincial and parliamentary polls that many hope will bring much-needed political stability to the Himalayan nation.
It had also secured an overwhelming majority in the upper house of Parliament with 39 out of the 59 seats.