KATHMANDU: Even five years after Nepal's Maoist guerrillas signed a peace accord and came to power through elections, their protracted bid to dismantle their underground army has received a fresh jolt with two of the top leaders of the party opposing the move.

Kiran Baidya, one of the three deputy chiefs of the Maoists, and Ram Bahadur Thapa, the party general secretary as well as one of the former strategists of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), issued a joint appeal on Tuesday, urging the nearly 20,000 combatants, including the brigade commanders, to resist the move by the party as well as the government to empty the cantonments.

"The pact (signed between the Maoists and other major parties) regarding the integration of the PLA is extremely insulting and goes against the peace accord," the two hawkish leaders said in the statement. "Therefore we appeal to all fighters, including the commanders, to remain entirely aloof from this process, which is tantamount to surrender."

The appeal came late in the day after a meeting of the Maoist leadership held to discuss the growing rift in the party ended without reconciliation. Baidya and Thapa are opposing the renewed push by its rival faction, which heads the government, to reach an understanding about the fate of the PLA by this month. The ruling faction, headed by Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, has agreed that maximum 6,500 PLA combatants will be inducted into the national army. The rest will be either asked to accept voluntary retirement with financial compensation or seek rehabilitation.

When Bhattarai came to power this year, he promised to push the process by November. However, there has been little actual progress still, which could go against him when the Nov 30 deadline comes up. It's time for the government to unfold a new constitution but it's clear the government will fail to do so, for the fourth time in a row. Failure to come up with a draft of the new constitution or even start the discharge of the PLA is going to weaken Bhattarai's position.

As it is, the government is under fire for appointing the largest cabinet ever in Nepal's history with 49 ministers, seeking to issue state pardon to a lawmaker convicted of murder, and soaring price rise.

The fresh gauntlet thrown by the hawks within the party increases the possibility of a vertical split among the Maoists, which could affect its position as the largest party in parliament. It could also stir up trouble over the move to demobilise the PLA.