Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal speaks during a plenary session at the COP28 UN Climate Summit, Dec 2, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (PHOTO / AP)

KATHMANDU - Nepal's Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Sunday named two more ministers in efforts to give a full shape to his new cabinet under a new coalition government.

Upendra Yadav, chairman of the Janata Samajbadi Party, was sworn in as deputy prime minister and minister for health and population. Nawal Kishor Sah Sudi, who is also from the party, was named as minister for forest and environment, said a statement from the office of the president.

Dahal, chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Center), had introduced 20 ministers into his cabinet by Wednesday after he broke alliance with the Nepali Congress and formed a new coalition with the CPN (Unified Marxist-Leninist) and two other parities two days earlier. He still can add three state ministers into the cabinet.

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Dahal took office as the head of a coalition government comprising the CPN-UML in December 2022 as no single party won a majority of seats in the lower house in the general elections held in November that year. The Nepali Congress joined the coalition months later following the exit of the CPN-UML.