UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal leaves for India next week at the invitation of the Indian government while Nepali Congress senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba will visit New Delhi on July 31.

Also in line for a Delhi sojourn are NC Vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel,

former PM and senior CPN-UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal and leaders from Madhes-based parties.

Earlier, Minister for Physical Planning and Transport Bimalendra Nidhi visited Delhi and met Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj.

These planned visits by leaders from across the political spectrum after the signing of the 16-point agreement to give a way for the constitution writing have raised eyebrows in Kathmandu.

“I look at these visits as ‘invited intervention’,” said former Nepali ambassador to India Lok Raj Baral.

Analysts say that the Indian establishment is divided over its Nepal policy as those active in policymaking in India—political leadership, top bureaucrats and security agencies—have divergent views on the state of affairs in their vicinity.

New Delhi’s concerns could also be to see that a constitution is drafted in broad consensus, which did not happen this time, according to Baral.

“The Delhi visits and Madhes-based leaders’ recent visit to the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu clearly reflect that India wants some sort of leverage and stake in the new constitution,” he added.

“India will encourage political leaders to work together and tell the ruling party leaders that concerns raised by the Madhes-based parties, Janajatis and Adivasis should be addressed.”

Even a section of politicians question the motives of New Delhi as well as the leaders when important constitutional and political developments are taking place in Nepal. They argue that this simply is an inappropriate time to visit India.

“We question the intent behind the visits when the new constitution is being finalised. The need of the hour is to concentrate on completing statute drafting and to decide a post-constitution power-sharing arrangement,” said former deputy prime minister and UCPM (Maoist) Vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha.

The itinerary of Dahal’s visit has been prepared while those for Deuba, Poudel, Nepal and Madhesi leaders are yet to be set, said a diplomatic source. The nature and agendas of the other visits would be similar.

Maoist Chairman Dahal on Wednesday held a discussion with senior party leaders on the agenda of his visit and his likely responses to possible Indian concerns.

Besides meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Dahal will deliver a lecture

at IDSA, a Delhi-based think tank.

Maoist sources said Dahal would convey to the Indian establishment that the power-sharing arrangement concerns only the NC and the UML and that the Maoists are not much interested in it. Second, preparing the first draft of the constitution would not have been possible without the 16-point agreement among four major political parties.

Dahal would also communicate that the names and delineation of the federal states would be decided before constitution promulgation. The meeting also discussed concerns that the Indian side could possibly raise with Dahal during the visit.

Dahal is learnt to be raising matters such as the bilateral India-China pact on the Lipu-Lekh pass and the closure, as asked by Nepal, of India’s temporary camp in Biratnagar that was established in 2008.