By Our Reporter Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who was dubbed as 'incompetent' Prime Minister and was sacked by King Gyanendra from the post of the Prime Minister back in 2004, has again been seen incapable of managing a coalition government. He has even failed to win the confidence of leaders of coalition parties who played the key role to make him the PM for the historic fifth time. It is evident from the fact that he has not expanded his Cabinet even 83 days after took the oath of office. He ran the state affairs only with four ministers —two each from the Nepali Congress and the Maoist Cente -- appointed back in July. In 84 days in office, he managed to add only two ministers —Minister of State for Health Umesh Shrestha and Foreign Affairs Minister Narayan Khadka. PM Deuba who had earlier earned a bad name for introducing anomalies in the parliamentary system in the mid-1990s and forming the biggest Cabinet is now leading only a seven-member Cabinet, the smallest one, not because of his will but because of his inability to add ministers. Many ministries have been without leadership for months and are manned by civil servants. What has actually led to the delay in expanding the Cabinet? There are several excuses. In the beginning, he did not expand it citing that the new party of Madhav Kumar Nepal had not received legal recognition. When Nepal's CPN Unified Socialist got due recognition from the Election Commission and parliament, he had the so-called dispute between Nepal and Upendra Yadav of the Janata Samajwadi Party Nepal regarding the share of important ministries to escape the responsibility. Of late, demand for a minister in the quota of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JBR was rumoured as a cause for the delay. However, the Supreme Court (SC) denied the news reports issuing a statement on Monday. The SC expressed its concerns over several news reports alleging Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana for being engrossed in the expansion of the council of ministers. Issuing a press statement on Monday, Baburam Dahal, spokesperson at the SC, said that CJ Rana's name was irrelevantly dragged into the issue. In the statement, the top court condemned the news reports which fabricated that the CJ had sought his 'quota' in the cabinet expansion. Although Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the Maoist Centre claimed on Monday that the Cabinet would be expanded by evening, Deuba did not expand it, making the expansion of the Cabinet more uncertain. It was also reported that PM Deuba wants to be sure about the endorsement of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) before giving full shape to the Cabinet as Dahal and Nepal are against the American project. Will Deuba go for an early election? Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s special envoy Gyanendra Bahadur Karki met opposition party leader and UML chair K.P. Sharma Oli for the third time since Deuba became the prime minister. Deuba had sent the message to Oli for developing cordial relations with the main opposition party and working together. In response, Oli had assured his party’s support to the Deuba led government. Also, Oli had remarked for an early election as the parliament is non-functional and Deuba is unable to function as the PM due to the vested interests of the alliance partners. Oli had hinted towards obstacles in giving the final shape to the cabinet led by Deuba. On the other hand, Deuba is also in favour of an early election. Deuba had supported Oli’s move dissolving the House saying that an early election was in favour of the NC and he had given directives to the party cadres to prepare for the election. Deuba is always in favour of an early election and presently, Deuba is not satisfied with the act of the leaders in the alliance government as they are creating hurdles in giving the final shape to the cabinet. The present political scenario is that the government is unable to function as Oli had described when he had dissolved the House. Deuba is a strong supporter of the MCC American grant project. He has taken rectification of the project by the parliament as his prestige issue. When Madhav Nepal and Pushpakamal Dahal opposed the American grant project, Deuba is unhappy with his partners. On the above background, there is the possibility of an early election that can be announced after the NC’s national convention. However, there is very little chance of the development of an election alliance between the NC and the communist parties. It is expected that NC will emerge as the largest party and UML may come up as the second-largest party if there will be an early election. The Maoist Center and Madhav Nepal led United Socialist Party may lose the elections. RPP may improve its position and the Tarai based parties may remain to the present status/strength. Presently, the political parties are engaged in holding their national convention and the election scenario will become more clear after the major political parties conclude their national conventions. Recalled ambassadors prepare to return home Twelve ambassadors appointed and re-appointed by the KP Sharma Oli-led government under the quota of political appointment are preparing to return home, while half a dozen others who were appointed by Oli just weeks before he was ousted, is sure to never become ambassadors in near future. Many of those who are preparing to return have assumed their offices only a few months ago. A meeting of the Council of Ministers held on September 22 had decided to call back Nepali ambassadors serving in India, China, Bangladesh, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Qatar, Malaysia, Israel, Spain, South Africa, Japan and Oman. MahendraBahadur Pandey from China, Dr. Banshi Dhar Mishra from Bangladesh, Narad Muni Bhardwaj from Qatar, Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada from the USA, Anjan Shakya from Israel, Udaya Raj Pandey from Malaysia, Dawa Phuti Sherpa from Spain, Dr. Nirmal Kumar Bishwkarma from South Africa, Nilambar Acharya from India, Lok Darshan Regmi from UK, Pratibha Rana from Japan and Sharmila Parajuli Dhakal from Oman are now preparing to return home. Rana is the mother-in-law of PM Deuba. The government, no matter which party leads it, often appoints their men instead of capable persons to lead the Nepali missions abroad. This is a reason for the poor diplomatic dealings of Nepal in international communities. Moreover, many of the missions remain vacant because of the inability of the government to appoint ambassadors. Now the government that called back the envoys from 12 countries, has not initiated any process to fill up the vacant posts, and probably they will not be filled for another year by the government that has remained incomplete for about three months.