Following the Cabinet decision to fix the date for presidential address to the Federal Parliament, the Parliament Secretariat plans to hold the first joint meeting of the House of Representatives and the National Assembly on Thursday.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari will address the joint session for the first time after her re-election. There is a practice of the head of state addressing the House session after its commencement. Sessions of both the Houses commenced on March 5.

Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara informed the Lower House that the President would address the joint session of Parliament at 4pm on Thursday.

As many as 275 lawmakers from the HoR and 59 from the NA will be in attendance. President Bhandari will congratulate newly elected members of both the Houses and also thank them for electing her to the post for a second time. On the backing of the left alliance and with support from two regional parties, Bhandari was re-elected on March 13 securing 39,275 votes against 11,730 of her rival from the Nepali Congress—Kumari Laxmi Rai.

She was elected the first female president of the country in October 2015, after promulgation of the Constitution of Nepal.