Congress lays claim to Bagmati chief minister seat

Coalition partners warn breach of agreement with CPN (Unified Socialist) could affect political alignment at the centre itself.

The newly-formed CPN (Unified Socialist), a splinter of the CPN-UML, was considering not joining the government when the coalition partners were bargaining hard for ‘powerful’ ministries days before the Cabinet expansion. The party wanted for itself the defence ministry, which other coalition partners were also staking claim to.