KATHMANDU: Vice-Chair of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), Bamdev Gautam, has refuted reports of a heated exchange between him and the party chair and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

Gautam stressed that in his recent meeting with the PM, he suggested PM Oli to solve the problems within the party with collective efforts, and by means of direct discussion with party committees.

The PM was suggested not to bypass the party committees and to call for party secretariat and standing committee meeting, Gautam said in a statement issued Sunday.

"I further recommended summoning of the central committee meeting and he listened to my suggestions and spoke a very little and then I left," NCP vice-chair said in the handwritten statement, denying any hostile confrontation between the two.