KATHMANDU: Following pressure from northern neighbor China, Prime Minister KP Oli and Nepal Communist Party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal have reached a gentleman agreement to hold the Secretariat meeting without entering into any specific agendas.

According to Baluwatar sources, Prime Minister Oli decided not to take any steps following the meetings with President Bidhya Bhandari this morning and Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi on Tuesday evening.

Similarly, Chairman Dahal has agreed to hold today’s meeting without discussing any specific agendas and defer the meeting for some days.

The much-talked-about Secretariat meeting of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) has begun at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar.

All the secretariat members from Oli camp including Prime Minister Oli are present in the meeting, according to Dahal’s secretariat.

The meeting is likely to discuss minor issues to thrash out the intra-party differences that have taken a new height of late.

Prime Minister KP Oli, who was adamant about postponing the meeting is also present in the meeting, sources have said.

Earlier today, PM Oli had met President Bidhya Devi Bhandari and discussed the ongoing situation.

NCP Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” had on Tuesday rebuffed PM Oli’s proposal to defer the scheduled Secretariat meeting.

The faction led by Prachanda was adamant about convening the meeting on Wednesday despite an urge by the PM Oli-led faction to postpone it for the time being.

PM Oli-led faction had proposed the disgruntled section of the leaders to hold the meeting later sometime by forging a consensus.

A meeting of the KP Oli-led faction had on Tuesday convened a meeting to chart its strategy in an effort to postpone the Secretariat meeting.

PM Oli had said he was ready to convene the meeting of the Secretariat as per the demand of the disgruntled group. “My idea is to hold the meeting on the basis of consensus,” a leader close to PM Oli had conceded.

The source quoted the Prime Minister as saying further, “I am not against the idea of holding the meeting. I want it to be held on the basis of understanding in a conducive environment.”

Meanwhile, in what was seen as an endeavor to avert the “imminent” split of the ruling NCP, Chinese Ambassador Hou Yanqi had on Tuesday evening met with PM Oli and suggested the latter to keep the party intact.

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