President Bidya Devi Bhandari has prorogued the eighth session of the House of Representatives from Monday night on the recommendation of the government.

Speaker Agni Sapkota read out a letter to this effect from the Office of the President at Monday’s House meeting on Monday afternoon.

“Since we needed time to forge consensus on the pending bills, we decided to recommend the President to prorogue the House from tonight,” said a minister after the meeting asking not to be named. “This session has been prorogued also because we need to call a new session soon.”

Earlier the cabinet meeting had decided to recommend the President to prorogue the ongoing budget session of the House of Representatives from tonight stating that the government needed time to forge a consensus on the pending bills.

A few weeks ago, former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had alleged that the government was trying to bring an ordinance to split the UML.

The first meeting of the reinstated House of Representatives was held on July 18. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba won the vote of confidence in the second meeting of the House on the same day securing 165 votes. As many as 10 meetings were held after the reinstatement.

Prime Minister Deuba was appointed on July 13 following a mandamus order by the Supreme Court a day earlier.

Deuba has failed to give full shape to the cabinet even after a month of his appointment.