KATHMANDU: Secretariat meeting of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) has been scheduled for later this afternoon.

Party leaders have been engaging in group-meets in preparation of the meeting today.

Since the last meeting held on April 29 ended inconclusively, today's follow-up meeting is being viewed with utmost interest as it is expected to settle scores between warring factions.

Rife within the party had escalated with Oli-Cabinet endorsing the much controversial party-split ordinance along with another ordinance that further emboldened the power exercised by the prime minister.

Only April 29 itself, the two factions (Oli faction and Dahal-Nepal faction) had launched a signature drive to collect signatures from lawmakers in their favour, respectively.

Today's meeting has also spiked curiosity as it would most likely decide on the Bamdev card -- a move made by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in a bid to keep the rival faction in check. PM Oli’s offer to make Madhav Kumar Nepal the third co-chair of NCP (NCP) and Bamdev Gautam the new prime minister has created ripples within the party.

Furthermore, Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi had intensified meeting with several actors of the ruling party as reports of intra-party feud were rife, rousing more curiosity.

The meeting is also likely to decide on a date for calling a meeting of the party's overdue standing committee, which PM Oli has been avoiding for long.