"While the major parties have reached consensus on the formation of a national consensus government, the prime minister seems bent on keeping the coalition intact," Koirala said while talking to media persons at his residence in Maharajgunj.[break]
The NC president said that the expansion of the council of ministers in a surprising way against the spirit of the seven-point deal will not help solve the problem.
He staked NC´s claim to the government arguing that the UML and the UCPN (Maoist) each have already led the government twice after the CA elections. "So it is natural for us to claim leadership over the new government," said Koirala.
Before leaving for the Maldives to participate in the 17th SAARC Summit on Tuesday, Bhattarai expanded his council of ministers, making it the second largest cabinet to date.
Koirala also took strong exception to the cabinet decision to recommend to the president to grant amnesty to Maoist lawmaker Bal Krishna Dhungel, who has been convicted of murder. He said the government decision is a travesty of justice and requested the president to think seriously over it before formally granting the amnesty.
He also questioned the honesty of the Maoists saying they are capturing private and public properties, instead of returning the properties already seized by the party members to their rightful owners as agreed in the peace deal.
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