Maoists unlikely to get home ministry

KATHMANDU, April 16: Even as Baluwatar asserts that the Maoists will not get the home portfolio in the next cabinet expansion the UCPN (Maoist) has become deeply embroiled in an intra-party feud over which of its factions should lead that powerful ministry.



The standing committee meeting of the UCPN (Maoist) held on Thursday to recommend more names for inclusion in the cabinet ended in rancor after the rival factions led by Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya vied to reserve the home portfolio for themselves.



The party even failed to hold the scheduled Standing Committee meeting Friday as differences persisted and deepened. [break]



Has Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal really assured Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal that the latter’s party will get the home portfolio in the next cabinet expansion?



“No way,” said Prime Minister Khanal’s top aide. “He actually reiterated to Dahal that he is not in a position to give the home portfolio to the Maoists any time soon.”



Prime Minister’s Press Advisor Surya Thapa is on record to Republica that the prime minister will not offer the Maoists the home ministry unless there is tangible progress in the peace process, the chief demand of the UML Standing Committee.



"The sooner the Maoists take initiatives toward making substantive progress in the peace process, the earlier they are likely to get the home portfolio," Thapa told Republica.



Maoist leaders, however, claim that there is no difference over the home ministry.



UCNP (Maoist) Secretary C P Gajurel said, “The issue of the home ministry has already been settled with the UML."



He even claimed that there was no alternative to Dev Gurung heading the home ministry. “We will take a formal decision on Saturday,” Gajurel said.



But Nayabazar is still uncertain whether the Maoist party will get the home portfolio. "Khanal always says when we meet him that our party will get the home ministry but after some time he requests us to wait for another 10-20 days,” said a source close to Dahal.



Why then is Dahal insisting at party meetings that a person from his faction should become home minister?



“Dahal is using the home portfolio more as a bargaining chip with the Baidya faction,” says a source close to Dahal.



The source says Dahal is ready to recommend Gurung as home minister when and if his party gets the home portfolio.



“But in return Dahal wants Baidya to agree to leave three ministries to his faction,” said the source.



The Dahal and Baidya factions had earlier agreed to allocate four ministries each to their respective factions and two ministries to a faction led by Dr Babu Ram Bhattarai.



The argument goes that the Baidya faction will not give up its claim to the home portfolio and at that point, as a compromise formula, he can propose that the Baidya faction concede one other ministry.



Dahal desperately needs at least one more ministry to accommodate aspirants for cabinet jobs from his own faction.



Currently he has a quota for only two ministries from his faction but there are at three aspirants for such jobs whom he cannot let down. He must accommodate Shakti Basnet, Gopal Kirati and Haribol Gajurel in the next cabinet expansion.

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