KATHMANDU: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has appointed former Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa ‘Badal’s wife Nainkala Thapa as the Minister for Communications and Information Technology as he expanded the cabinet Thursday, giving full shape to the Council of Ministers.
Badal had been loyal to PM Oli since December last year after the PM dissolved the House of Representatives (HoR) for the first time. At the time Badal had fully supported PM Oli and continued to serve under his leadership as the Home Minister.
Even after the HoR was reinstated and the CPN-UML and Maoist Center were revived by the Supreme Court (SC) by annulling the erstwhile Nepal Communist Party (NCP), Badal deserted his native party Maoist Center and joined the UML led by PM Oli.
PM Oli had also tried to make Badal a member of National Assembly (NA) from Bagmati Province. But after Badal lost the NA by-election, he lost his parliamentarian status and eventually lost the Ministerial Post following SC order barring non-parliamentarians from holding ministerial posts.
Recognizing Badal’s sacrifices and support, PM Oli has rewarded him by appointing his wife Nainkala as a minister.
Nainkala had not been active in politics. She did not take part in elections after the Maoists entered the peace process in 2006. According to a Maoist Center leader, Nanakala went underground along with others when the people’s war was waged by the Maoists.
During the Maoist war, she was the president of Women’s Association. She never participated in Maoist Central Committee or Standing Committee meetings. However, she was a member of the Central Advisory Committee of the party.
Thapa, who has been in the teaching profession, became the head of the Women’s Commission after 2006.
Badal had not left the minister’s quarters in Pulchowk when he left the ministry.
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