As Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba begins consultations to expand his five-member Cabinet, he faces an uphill task with demands and complexities of the constituencies that supported him during the confidence vote in Parliament on Sunday.

The 165 lawmakers that voted for him belong to a disparate group.

Besides the Nepali Congress, lawmakers from the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), the two factions of the Janata Samajbadi Party that have more or less split, a section of the main opposition CPN-UML, and Rashtriya Janamorcha supported Deuba.

According to leaders close to Deuba, he wants a representation of all parties that stood by him.

“Discussions are going on with all the parties who supported us,” Purna Bahadur Khadka, a Congress general secretary, told the Post.

But all the parties have their own complexities including Deuba’s own Nepali Congress.

The rival faction of the party, led by Ram Chandra Poudel, has demanded at least one deputy prime minister with the other General Secretary Shashanka Koirala, former vice-president Prakash Man Singh and senior leader Sujata Koirala vying for the post.

It has also demanded three additional ministerial portfolios.

“But Deuba has made it clear that it is not possible and the Poudel faction will get just two portfolios in the Cabinet,” said a Nepali Congress leader close to Deuba on condition of anonymity. “One of the major reasons behind the delay in Cabinet formation is dynamics inside the Nepali Congress.”

Deuba has also assured one Cabinet portfolio to another camp of the party led by former general secretary Krishna Prasad Sitaula, according to the leader.

The constitution allows only 25 Cabinet ministers.

Initially, there were talks among the alliance partners to appoint ministers at the one Cabinet position for every 10 parliamentarians ratio but as the number of aspirants grew, it was changed to one for eight, according to the Congress leaders the Post talked to.

“Now the Janata Samajbadi Party is saying one minister for six parliamentarians and this is another reason for the delay in Cabinet expansion,” the Nepali Congress leader close to Deuba said.

The faction of the party led by Upendra Yadav, however, is in no hurry to join the Cabinet.