A Chinese delegation in Nepal, led by the Chinese Communist Party’s foreign affairs committee, may be forced to return to Beijing without the party unity they had sought to bring between PM K P Sharma Oli’s faction and the rival Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda camp.

Oli reportedly also held a meeting with Nepal President Bidya Bhandari, the details of which have not been released, said sources, reports Times of India.

The four-member Chinese delegation met former PM Sher Bahadur Deuba (Nepali Congress) on Tuesday and invited him for the hundredth anniversary celebration of the CCP in 2021. They had also met Baburam Bhattarai, also a former PM, earlier. Political watchers in Kathmandu described both meetings as intended to show that the Chinese were not interested only in NCP.

The delegation is exploring whether it might be possible to rework an old formula — give Oli a year as PM and another year to Prachanda. Though Oli has apparently agreed to consider it, the formula has been rejected by Prachanda, sources said, on the grounds that Oli had refused to cede power after the 2.5 year-mark as had been apparently decided before the previous election. The conditions Prachanda put to the delegation was that the House had to be reconstituted and that Oli had to resign. This wasn’t acceptable to Oli.