new delhi looking to undo the damage caused by the recent strife in bilateral ties india and nepal have been exploring ways to restart the engagement process however just when india thought the time was finally ripe for this another wave of political uncertainty has hit nepal with the rival faction in the ruling communist party led by pk dahal prachanda again looking to pressgang prime minister kp sharma oli into stepping downan agency report from kathmandu said the chinese ambassador to nepal hou yanqi had met oli on tuesday to defuse the crisis but there was no official confirmation of the agenda for the meetingwhile a final decision on whether or not foreign secretary harsh shringla will visit nepal later this month is still awaited sources said the 2 countries have also discussed the possibility of holding meetings virtually between the commerce and energy secretariesnepal had also proposed dates for a meeting of the boundary working group this month but that will probably have to wait because the meeting involves field work that may not be possible to carry out because of the pandemic with oli and his ministers having toned down the rhetoric over the kalapani border dispute indian army chief mm naravane visited kathmandu earlier this month and called on the nepal pm to discuss ways to expand defence cooperation both sides seemed satisfied with the outcome of the visitin the middle of efforts to rebuild ties with india though the crisis in the ruling party resurfaced late last week with nepal media reporting that dahal had asked oli to make sacrifices to save the party this was interpreted as another call for olis resignation by the ruling party cochair for the pms alleged incompetence and failure to govern dahal has apparently refused to withdraw a document in which he had listed several examples of olis alleged failuresthe latest development seems to have again brought the nepal communist party on the verge of a split with oli unlikely to go without putting up a fighthous meeting with oli on tuesday has also drawn attention in kathmandu even though its not clear yet what the agenda was the chinese embassy there has made no secret of the fact that chinas interests lie with a united communist party kathmandu post quoted its spokesperson in july when oli was faced with a similar crisis as saying that china did not wish to see the nepal communist party in trouble and wished that leaders would resolve their differences and stay uniteddespite his prochina image and his decision to rush through the validation of nepals controversial map showing indian territories in it oli seems to be doing a balancing act for now his decision to remove ishwor pokharel who had been critical of th indian army chief as defence minister was seen by some as a positive signal to india although it probably also had to do with inner party politics he later also faced questions for violating the protocol by having