Kathmandu, Sept. 23 -- More than two months after Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deubatook officeto lead a five-party coalition, he has not even been able to form a complete Cabinet. He was thought to haveamassed a lot of experiencein coalition bargaining during his previous five tenures as prime minister.

But this time, he is having a difficult time untangling the knots within knots within the alliance. First, he has had todivide up ministerial portfoliosamong his coalition partners which turned out to be a major hurdle.

After the government was formed in mid-July, Deuba's Nepali Congress (NC) and the Maoist Centre (MC) divided up the powerful finance, energy, home and law ministries among themselves. He then appointed a loyalist to be st...