The members of the CPN (Maoist Centre) General Convention Organising Committee in Sindhupalchok, who announced their collective resignation on Tuesday, have said their move is aimed at creating moral pressure on the leadership against its faulty decision to form the jumbo committee.

The 70 GCOC members include six politburo members—Krishna Prasad Sapkota, Dawa Tamang, Madhav Sapkota, Keshav Nepal, Saral Sahayatri and Yubaraj Dulal.

Their resignations would be registered at the party headquarters in Kathmandu by Sunday. Sapkota said their move was aimed at pressing other committees and members of the party to “relinquish their positions for the sake of party and the country”. 

Doing so would help the Maoist leadership to form a workable central committee, he argued.

Mani Thapa, a member of the party headquarters, said many of the leaders had called for a smaller and workable committee at different party forums but the size of the organising committee had become unmanageably large due to pressure from the 10 factions uniting to form the Maoist Centre.

“Now the leaders and cadres are realising that the decision was suicidal and have started relinquishing their positions, which is very much encouraging,” said Thapa.

Senior Maoist leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha also welcomed the move. Everyone knew that the jumbo committee of around 4,000 members would lead the party nowhere, he said.