Himal Press 
POKHARA: Gandaki Chief Minister Surendra Raj Pandey has inducted four members from CPN-UML into his cabinet.
Pandey appointed Prakash Bahadur KC (Kaski), Padma GC Shrestha (Nawalpur), Krishna Pathak (Baglung) and Mitralal Basyal (Parbat) as new minsiters of his cabinet on Monday.
Province Chief Dilli Ram Bhatta administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers.
Pandey reshuffled his cabinet after the formation of a new coalition of CPN-UML and Nepali Congress (NC) in the center. He split two ministries on Sunday to make room for new members of his cabinet. With this, the number of ministries in Gandaki has reached nine.
NC has five members in the new cabinet, including the Chief Minister, while UML has four. Pandey has also included Fanindra Devkota of Nepal Samajbadi Party (NSP) and Independent Member Rajiv Gurung aka Deepak Manange in his cabinet.
These two earlier supported Pandey to form government when he was two seats short of majority in the province assembly.
Although UML has finally joined the province government, there is dissatisfaction within the party, especially from the faction led by Deputy General Secretary Prithvi Subba Gurung, over the selection of ministers. Out of four ministers who joined Pandey’s cabinet on Monday, three are close to Khagaraj Adhikari, the parliamentary party leader in Gandaki Province, while one is from Gurung’s camp.
Gandaki Cabinet
