A crucial meeting of Nepal's ruling communist party to decide the political future of embattled Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli was postponed for the fourth time on Friday, citing floods in the country, amidst calls for his resignation over his style of functioning and anti-India statements.

The meeting of the Nepal Communist Party's 45-member powerful standing committee was scheduled to be held on Friday. But it was postponed for a week at the last moment.

NCP spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha told reporters that the meeting was deferred as the party is engaged in assisting rescue and relief operations and working to minimise loss due to the landslides and floods that hit different parts of the country since Thursday following incessant rain.

At least 12 people were killed in multiple landslides in Kaski, Lamjung and Rukum districts in the country's western region on Thursday.

Seven people lost their lives due to landslides in the Sarangkot and Hemjan areas in Kaski district's Pokhar, according to officials.

Top NCP leaders, including former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda', have demanded Prime Minister Oli's resignation, saying his recent anti-India remarks were "neither politically correct nor diplomatically appropriate".

The differences between the two factions of the NCP, one led by Oli and the other led by party's executive chairman 'Prachanda', on the issue of power-sharing have recently intensified after the prime minister unilaterally decided to prorogue the budget session of Parliament.

The political future of 68-year-old Oli is now expected to be decided on July 17 during the standing committee meeting, amidst the growing involvement of Hou Yanqui, the Chinese Ambassador to Nepal, to save his chair.

The Prachanda faction, backed by senior leaders and former prime ministers Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhalanath Khanal, has been demanding Oli's resignation, saying his recent anti-India remarks were "neither politically correct nor diplomatically appropriate".

On Sunday, China's Ambassador Hou met senior leaders and former prime ministers Madhav Nepal and Khanal as hectic negotiations for a power-sharing deal were going on between Oli and the dissident group led by Prachanda.

The Prachanda-led faction has asked Oli to resign from both the posts of the prime minister as well as the party chairman, while Oli is not ready to quit any of the two key posts.