Nepal's federal parliament to begin its new session today

Nepal: A cabinet decision recommended to the president that both houses of the federal parliament be summoned at 4 pm on September 8.

Nepal's parliament session is scheduled to convene on Wednesday, as summoned by the country's president Bidya Devi Bhandari, who, according to a notice issued by her office last week, had called for the next session of the House of Representatives to be held at 4pm on September 8. The recommendation was made after a cabinet meeting, following discussions among Nepal prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Speaker of House of Representatives Agni Sapkota, CPN (Maoist Center) chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, and CPN (Unified Socialist) chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal.

Nepal President Bidya Devi Bhandari has summoned the new session of parliament on September 8, according to a notice issued by her office.  (Representational Image / PTI FILE)

Nepal's energy minister Pampha Bhusal, as cited by a news outlet, had said that the cabinet decision recommended to the president that both houses of the federal parliament be summoned at 4 pm on September 8.

The last session of the Nepal parliament was prorogued to August 17, a day after which the Deuba government introduced an ordinance to amend the Political Parties Act, easing party splits and registration of new parties. With the help of this ordinance, the Madhav Kumar Nepal group had split from the CPN-UML and the Mahhanth Thakur faction had broken away from the Janata Samajbadi Party.

Madhav Nepal has registered CPN (Unified Socialist) while Thakur has registered Loktantrik Samajbadi Party.

The Election Commission has given until September 7 to those who were elected to provincial and local levels under the UML and the Janata Samajbadi to choose sides–whether they want to stay in the mother parties or the newly registered outfits, the report said.

The recognition of the Madhav Nepal-led party brings to end a long-standing feud between him and former prime minister Oli in the UML.