President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Monday called on the political parties to elect a Prime Minister based on political consensus and form a Cabinet.

Earlier, the president had ordered to remove constitutional difficulty for the formation of new government as per the recommendation made by the Cabinet on Sunday.

In a press statement on Monday evening, President Bhandari called on the parties to form a consensus government within a week as per the Article 298 (2) of the Constitution of Nepal. Prior to this she had held consultations with top leaders of major three political parties—Prime Minister and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

 PM K P Sharma Oli led cabinet on Sunday had recommended the President to remove the hurdles to form a new government by invoking Article 305 of the Constitution as there was no provision to elect new Prime Minister after the Prime Minister's resignation in the transition.