Nepal President calls parliament session on January 9

Nepal President Bidhya Devi Bhandari on Tuesday called the first session of the new Parliament on January 9 after the country went to polls on November 20. This will be the first Parliament session after the appointment of Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" as the new prime minister of the landlocked nation on Monday.

President's Office spokesperson Sagar Acharya said the session will be held under Article 93 (1) of the Constitution.

The first cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Prachanda on Monday recommended the president for calling the new parliament session. Prachanda was on Monday sworn in as the Prime Minister of Nepal for the third time, a day after the former guerrilla leader dramatically walked out of the pre-poll alliance led by the Nepali Congress and joined hands with opposition leader K P Sharma Oli. The 68-year-old CPN-Maoist Centre chairman was appointed as the country's new prime minister on Sunday after he submitted a letter to President Bhandari showing the support of 169 members in the 275-member House of Representatives.

President Bhandari administered the oath to other cabinet members of the new coalition government on Monday.

The new cabinet has three deputy prime ministers - Bishnu Paudel from Oli's Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist–Leninist (CPN-UML), Narayan Kaji Shrestha from CPN-Maoist Centre and Rabi Lamichhane from Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP).