HETAUDA/ Indra Bahadur Baniya, the newly-appointed chief minister of Bagmati province, was sworn in along with eight ministers on Tuesday.
Province Chief Deepak Prasad Devkota administered the oath of office and secrecy to the newly-appointed chief minister and ministers on Tuesday afternoon.
The oath-taking ceremony was held at the Office of the Province Chief in Hetauda, Makawanpur.
Earlier on Tuesday, Province Chief Devkota appointed Baniya, the leader of the Nepali Congress parliamentary party, as chief minister according to Article 168 (2) of the Constitution.
Chief Minister Baniya recommended eight ministers—two from the NC and six from the CPN-UML—who were subsequently appointed by the province chief.
In Bagmati, the NC has 37 lawmakers, while the UML has 27.
The ministers appointed from the UML include Minister for Physical Infrastructure Dinesh Chandra Devkota, Minister for Labor and Employment Jayaram Thapa, Minister for Forests and Environment Bharat Bahadur KC, Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Madhusudan Paudel, Minister for Industry Bindu Shrestha, and Minister for Health Kiran Thapa Magar.
Similarly, the ministers from the NC include Minister for Drinking Water Krishna Bahadur Tamang, and Shivaraj Adhikari, who has yet to be assigned a ministry.
Additional ministers for the ministries allocated to the NC are yet to be appointed. Chief Minister Baniya is likely to recommend further ministerial appointments after consultations with NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba.
The previous government in Bagmati province was also headed by the NC, with Bahadur Singh Lama Tamang as chief minister.
After losing his position as the leader of the NC parliamentary party, Tamang resigned as chief minister, and Baniya, the new NC parliamentary party leader, was appointed chief minister.
