Second Oli cabinet

The Second Oli cabinet, also known as the Oli cabinet, 2018, was the Government of Nepal from 15 February 2018 to 13 July 2021. It initially formed as a majority coalition on 15 February 2018, after Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli was elected as the new Prime Minister of Nepal following the 2017 general election. Oli's candidacy was supported by the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre). He assumed his office with two ministers and the remaining ministers were added at later points. The CPN (Maoist Centre) withdrew its support from the government in May 2021, reducing it to a minority, and after the dissolution of the House of Representatives, it turned into an interim government. The cabinet was replaced by the fifth Deuba cabinet, formed after the Supreme Court ordered the appointment of Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba as prime minister under Article 76 (5) of the Constitution of Nepal.

Despite the name, the cabinet is not an extension of the first Oli cabinet, because two different cabinets by two different prime ministers separated both Oli cabinets. Apart from prime minister Oli, only four other ministers served in both cabinets: Giriraj Mani Pokharel and Shakti Bahadur Basnet, from in the beginning, and Bishnu Prasad Paudel and Top Bahadur Rayamajhi from a later rearrangement. Pokharel headed the Ministry of Education while Paudel headed the Ministry of Finance both times, whereas Basnet and Rayamajhi served in two different ministries in the two cabinets.

History
The Constitution of Nepal set the maximum numbers of ministers including state ministers to 25. However, Oli decided to have 17 ministries under him, which is less than the previous cabinets, each around 30 ministries. On 26 February 2018, it increased by seven more ministers to 22 ministries. On 16 March 2018, the addition of three state ministers brought the number of cabinet members to 25.

On 11 March 2018, Oli won a motion of confidence with 208 of 268 in the 275-member House of Representatives.

On 17 May 2018, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) merged to form the Nepal Communist Party, giving the Oli government a majority in both houses of the federal parliament. On 28 May 2018, the Federal Socialist Forum, which would later merge into the Samajbadi Party on 6 May 2019, joined the government. The Samajbadi Party left the government on 24 December 2019.

Further reshuffles were on 20 November 2019 and 14 October 2020.

A major reshuffle took place on 25 December 2020 after several ministers resigned in protest of Oli's move to recommend the dissolution of the House of Representatives which was approved by the president, although later overturned by the Supreme Court. All ministers were in the Nepal Communist Party until 7 March 2021, when the party was dissolved by the Supreme Court. The verdict invalidated the ruling party, reviving the former CPN (UML) and CPN (Maoist Centre) parties. This reduced Oli's government back to a coalition government. The CPN (Maoist Centre) recalled its ministers on 13 March 2021 and withdrew its support from the government on 5 May 2021, turning it into a minority government. After Oli failed a vote of confidence in the parliament, his government was reduced to a caretaker capacity.

Oli became a minority prime minister on 13 May 2021 by president Bidya Devi Bhandari, as no opposition party formed a majority government or claimed it in time. Citing Article 76 (3) of the constitution, Oli, leading the largest party in the House of Representatives, was re-appointed prime minister, requiring him to again form a majority in the house within 30 days. Following the dissolution of the House of Representatives by the president at midnight on 22 May 2021, the Oli government turned into an interim government until elections on 12 and 19 November 2021.

Another major reshuffle took place on 4 June 2021, after the CPN (UML) formed a coalition with a faction of the People's Socialist Party, after negotiations awarded ten ministerial berths to the faction led by Mahantha Thakur and Rajendra Mahato. The cabinet was further expanded on 10 June 2021. The Supreme Court, on 22 June 2021, stayed the cabinet expansion and reshuffle by Prime Minister Oli. The petitioners claimed that a government formed under article 76 (3) of the constitution with a caretaker status cannot expand or reshuffle the cabinet. Twenty ministers (including three deputy prime ministers) appointed on 4 and 10 June 2021 were dismissed from their post. Bishnu Prasad Paudel remained minister of Finance from 14 October 2020, but no longer elevated to deputy prime minister like he was on 4 June 2021. Prime Minister Oli thereafter divided the portfolios among the five remaining cabinet members on 24 June 2021.

Dissolution
On 12 July 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that the president's decision to dissolve the House of Representatives on the recommendation of prime minister Oli was unconstitutional and ordered the appointment of Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba as prime minister within 28 hours, after the opposition filed writs against the dissolution. President Bhandari appointed Deuba as the prime minister in accordance with Article 76 (5) of the Constitution of Nepal, and he was sworn in for a fifth term on 13 July 2021.