Nepalese Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli arrives for an inaugural ceremony at an event. File/AP

Nepal's popular communist prime minister is in the hospital awaiting his second kidney transplant after months of illness.

Khadga Prasad Oli, 69, was admitted to the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu on Monday night. He said in a video message to citizens the surgery will be done on Wednesday.

Local media say a relative is donating a kidney to Oli. Nepal's laws require a donor and recipient to be related and for no monetary transaction to be involved.

Oli has long suffered from kidney illness and has made several trips to India and Thailand for treatment.

He underwent his first kidney transplant in 2007 in New Delhi.

Oli became prime minister in 2018 after the Communist alliance swept parliamentary elections. He was prime minister in 2015 also and has been elected to parliament four times.

Associated Press