Nepal’s former Maoist premier Baburam Bhattarai yesterday resigned from his party and parliament, days after announcing his support for protesters fighting to bring changes to a new constitution.
The protesters, who belong to the Madhesi community, are angry about plans to divide the country into seven federal provinces under the charter adopted on Sunday.
Former Maoist rebel Bhattarai has consistently attacked lawmakers — including members of his own party — for not taking minorities’ concerns into account while drafting the constitution.
“Effective from today’s date I have resigned from all obligations, responsibilities at all levels as well as general membership of the UCPN Maoists,” Bhattarai told a press conference, referring to the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), in which he had been a senior member.
“There is no option of returning to a house you have left, an old house, a damaged house,” Bhattarai said, announcing his resignation from Nepal’s national parliament as well.
“I will now do what I can as a citizen of this country... as long as I am alive I will work for the country and the people,” he said.  
The new charter, Nepal’s first to be drawn up by elected representatives, is the final stage in a peace process that began when Maoist rebels laid down arms in 2006 after a decade-long insurgency aimed at creating a more equal society.  
But the constitution’s adoption has been marred by weeks of violent protests in Nepal’s southern plains, home to half of the country’s population.
More than 40 people have died in weeks of clashes between police and protesters from the Madhesi and Tharu communities, ethnic minorities who say the new internal borders leave them under-represented in the national parliament.