The Standing Committee meeting of UCPN (Maoist) on Wednesday expelled its five politburo members from the party for supporting Baburam Bhattarai, a former party leader who defected from the party after the promulgation of a new constitution.

Politburo members Ram Chandra Jha, Ram Kumar Sharma, Ram Rijan Yadav, Ganga Shrestha and Mahendra Yadav were ousted from the party for violating the party’s discipline by supporting Bhattarai’s campaign to form a new political force.

Earlier, UCPN (Maoist) had sought clarification from these leaders.

“The party has concluded that Bhattarai and his supporters have deviated from Marxist and Leninist line,” Party Spokesperson Dina Nath Sharma said of the party decision to sack its five politburo members.

Jha and Sharma are considered key Madhesi leaders of the party. Another Madhes-based leader Prabhu Sah, who was close to Bhattarai, however, is silent about his position in the party, though he has expressed displeasure over the party’s decision to join CPN-UML-led government.

The Maoists Standing Committee meeting also sought clarification from the leaders who had submitted a letter at the party headquarters on Tuesday, informing that they would join the new force under Bhattarai. Those leaders include Devendra Poudel, Kumar Poudel and Bhattarai’s wife Hisila Yami. The Maoist party has given them five days to furnish the clarification.

The concerned leaders, however, said that it was meaningless to seek clarification from them.

Bhattarai’s supporter Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, who is currently Deputy Prime Minister in the UML-led government, is still in the party.

This is the second time in three years that UCPN (Maoist) has suffered a major split. In June 2012, Mohan Baidya and his supporters had quit the party to form a separate party.

After joining the mainstream politics by putting an end to a decade-long insurgency in 2006, UCPN (Maoist)— then CPN (Maoist)—had emerged as the largest political party through the first Constituent Assembly election in 2008.

The party suffered its first split due to the differences concerning peace process, integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants, and constitution writing.

 Bhattarai and his supporters quit the party after Dahal refused to handover the party leadership and reform the party.

“Even after Bhattarai’s departure, we had proposed Dahal to reform the party organisation, but he refused to do so. Consequently, we were compelled to leave the party,” said Poudel.