KATHMANDU: Some central leaders of UCPN-Maoist, who are loyal to Baburam Bhattarai, on Tuesday left the party en masse, saying they would now work on to form a new political force.

Maoist ideologue Bhattarai had severed ties with the Maoist party on September 26 and announced that he would form a new political force as an alternative to the existing parties.

The Maoist leaders who severed ties with the Maoist party, which is one of allies of ruling coalition, include Bhattarai's wife Hisila Yami and Devendra Paudel, Ram Chandra Jha, Ram Kumar Sharma, Khim Lal Devkota, Nawaraj Subedi and Ganga Narayan Shrestha among others.

A total of 45 leaders -- Devendra Paudel, Ram Rijhan Yadav, Ram Chandra Jha, Ganga Narayan Shrestha, Rajendra Kumar Kiranti, Mahendra Paswan, Swanam Sathi, Nawaraj Subedi, Chandra Bahadur Shah, Bhim Prasad Gautam, Ramesh Sigdel, Ram Bahadur Bohora, Saraswati Chaudhary, Arvinda Saha, Ram Chandra Bhattarai, Kalamudding Rain, Nandan Kumar Dutta, Pramod Narayan Yadav, Ramesh Ranjan Jha, Kumar Paudel, Ram Lautan Tiwari, Sushil Sipali, Ranjit Patel, Bednidhi Adhikari , Krishna Sharma, Sanam Singh Syantan, Hisila Yami, Kalpana Dhamala, Devendra Parajuli, Khim Lal Devkota, Bishnu Hari Sharma, Kamal Khanal, Yamuna Bhusal, Dr. Bharat Lamichhane, Chinak Kurmi, Raj Kishor Yadav, Ghanashyam Yadav, Baliram Saha, Ambika Thapa, Kalpana Subedi, Balawti Sharma, Mahendra Shrestha, Lila Bhandari, Ram Kumar Sharma and Sarun Batha Magar -- signed and submitted a memorandum  to express "some issues of our disagreement" to the Maoist headquarters, and "informing" the party that they think its their duty now to be part of the campaign to form a new alternative political force.