KATHMANDU: In an endeavor to avert “imminent” split of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), Chinese Ambassador Hou Yanqi made another frantic move on Tuesday evening.
Highly-placed security sources told Khabarhub that Ambassador Yanqi entered Prime Minister KP Oli’s official residence, Baluwatar at 8:10 pm on Tuesday and made an exit at around 10:10 pm after holding two hours of talks with PM Oli.
Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Yanqi’s meeting on Tuesday evening comes at a time when the intra-party conflict of the NCP has reached a new height.
Soon after the meeting with Yanqi, PM Oli reached President’s office at Shital Niwas to discuss the current imbroglio within the party.
What transpired between PM Oli and Ambassador Yanqi, however, has not been made public.
However, speculations are that Ambassador Yanqi, as always, has initiated moves to avert split in the ruling NCP.
It has been speculated that Ambassador Yanqi “influenced” PM Oli to work unitedly by making the party intact.
It may be noted that Yanqi has been accustomed to intensifying meetings with the NCP top-notch leaders to prevent the party from splitting.
She had also met and discussed with the NCP top leaders, including NCP Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhalanath Khanal in May this year when the party was on the verge of a split.
China government’s move about micromanagement of Nepali politics has drawn international attention towards Nepal, of late, observers say.
Meanwhile, NCP Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” had on Tuesday evening called on President Bidya Devi Bhandari.
The meeting between Executive Chairman Prachanda and President Bhandari is viewed meaningful at a time when the dispute in the party is at its peak.
In fact, the meeting between Yanqi and PM Oli comes at a time when the disgruntled faction of the party led by Prachanda had been adamant to go ahead with the meeting of the Secretariat scheduled for Wednesday.
The faction had on Tuesday morning decided to hold the meeting under any circumstances.
Meanwhile, the faction led by PM Oli is hell-bent on postponing the meeting. A meeting of the Oli-led faction held on Tuesday evening decided to propose to postpone the meeting for the “time-being” and convene it on the basis of consensus anytime soon.
Sources have also claimed that the Chinese Embassy has “mobilized” some “middlemen”, including some businessmen and Nepali officials to influence and convince NCP top-notch leaders to move ahead by forging a consensus to keep the party intact.
Likewise, the sources also revealed that the Directorate of Military Intelligence of the Nepal Army (NA) has been closely tracking the recent developments.
Observers have to note that the credit of keeping the NCP intact goes to Chinese Ambassador Yanqi, who has been putting all her efforts to patch up the differences between the two sides, and she has been succeeding.
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