Delegation of Nepal's Ruling Party Lands in India Amid Border Row, Meets Modi and Top BJP Leaders

Rabi Lamichhane , chairman of Nepal's ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) , arrived in New Delhi on Sunday at the start of a significant five-day visit that is being closely watched in both diplomatic and political circles. The visit, scheduled from June 1 to June 5 , was made at the invitation of BJP President Nitin Naveen .

A five-member delegation is accompanying Lamichhane, comprising RSP Joint General Secretary and Member of Parliament Bipin Kumar Acharya , Secretariat Member and MP Deepak Bohora , his wife Nikita Poudel , and Pradeep Acharya. During the visit, Lamichhane is scheduled to hold high-level political and diplomatic meetings in New Delhi and also meet members of the Nepali community living in India. He is also scheduled to make a personal trip to Ayodhya .

While the official framing of the visit focuses on party-to-party engagement, centred on organisational practices, democratic processes and people-centric political outreach, the diplomatic underpinnings run considerably deeper. Sources in Kathmandu and New Delhi indicate that Lamichhane is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi , External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar , National Security Adviser Ajit Doval , Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari , and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri , with a Modi meeting proposed for June 2 .

The visit assumes particular significance given the current state of India-Nepal relations. Tensions have been building over the Lipulekh border dispute and trade issues, following Nepal's strong protest after India and China announced that Indian pilgrims would travel to Kailash Mansarovar via the disputed Lipulekh region without Nepal's consent. These frictions also led to the cancellation of Foreign Secretary Misri's scheduled visit to Kathmandu in May, which had been agreed upon when the two foreign ministers met in Mauritius in April.

India had originally invited both Prime Minister Balendra Shah and Lamichhane following the RSP's landslide electoral victory in March. With Shah's visit uncertain due to a self-imposed moratorium on foreign travel until completing 100 days in office, Lamichhane has become the first senior RSP leader to make the journey. Prime Minister Modi had telephoned both leaders after the election, expressing confidence that India-Nepal relations would scale new heights.

The BJP has been prioritising party-to-party relations alongside state-to-state diplomacy with Nepal, a pattern that has seen leaders of previous ruling parties, including former Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba and Maoist Centre chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal , visit New Delhi under similar invitations. Observers believe the visit, while framed as a party engagement, carries the weight of a diplomatic reset at a sensitive moment in the bilateral relationship.