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Nepal's embattled Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has become a man without a party.
With the election commission formally recognising the faction headed by former prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala as the genuine Nepali Congress party, Deuba's cup of woes seems to be overflowing.
Announcing its interim verdict, the EC said on September 18 that Koirala's faction of the Nepali Congress is entitled to the party flag and symbol -- a tree -- and issued a seven-day deadline to Deuba to register a new party.
"The commission has decided to recognise the faction headed by Girija Prasad Koirala as Nepali Congress until another notification," EC spokesman Shambu Prasad Khanal said, adding that the final verdict will come after the general election on November 13.
The decision comes as a rude shock to Deuba. In May, party president Koirala had expelled him for violating the constitution of the Nepali Congress.
Deuba went on to dissolve the 205-member lower house of parliament and called for fresh mid-term polls.
The move ignited sharp criticism from all quarters and complicated matters further in this tiny South Asian nation, which is already reeling under Maoist violence. The armed movement, which has intensified in recent times, has claimed the lives of nearly 5,000 people.
With the general election, which the government plans to hold in at least eight phases, less than two months away, Deuba is trying to gather his supporters in Kathmandu on September 27. But before that, he will have to get a new party registered by September 24.
Deuba had hastily arranged a similar meeting of his party cadres before splitting the Nepali Congress in May.
The two-day convention decided expelled Koirala and his supporters from the party and elected Deuba as the new head of the Nepali Congress.
The prime minister, whose political calculations have now gone awry thanks to the EC verdict, has expressed surprise over the development. However, he said that the government is firm on holding elections.
"We take the verdict positively," Hom Nath Dahal, spokesman of the faction headed by Deuba, said.
Strangely, even Koirala has questioned the legality and legitimacy of the EC's verdict. Though he seemed triumphant, he warned that the provisional verdict is part of a conspiracy to scuttle democracy.
"This is cogent inaction of inaction on the part of EC, but this is our party's victory," Koirala said.
The EC has also said that preparations are underway to hold peacefull, free and fair polls. So far, it has appointed judges in each of Nepal's 75 districts as chief election officers.
Yet few believe that the elections can take place in this violence-wracked nation.
Stung by two Maoist attacks that left nearly 200 people dead, the government has said it would impose a fresh spell of emergency, but relax it during the elections.
All politicians and intellectuals have criticised the government's intention, and there is a renewed clamour for peace talks with the Maoists.
The chairman of the underground Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Comrade Prachanda, on September 13 expressed his party's readiness to declare a ceasefire and resume dialogue for a "positive political way out".
The government is under pressure to resume dialogue with the rebels, yet it has not responded positively to Prachanda's statement.
A plain-speaking man, Deuba and his cabinet colleagues seriously doubt the rebels' sincerity, as they had unilaterally broken a ceasefire and precipitated emergency in November last year. The truce had held for more than four months.
Deuba has enjoyed support from the international community, including the United States, United Kingdom and India. They have backed his fight against the Maoists and also pledged -- in some case extended -- military assistance to the government.
US President George W Bush has hailed Nepal's efforts to quash terrorism, and promised to work together in a letter addressed to Deuba, which was issued September 12.
"As I noted in our conversation in May, with perseverance and courage, we will defeat terrorism," Bush said in the letter, recalling his meeting with Deuba in Washington D C in May.
"Nepal has chosen the path of peace. We will work together to build a world that values its people and gives them a future of freedom and hope," he said.
But senior politicians and intellectuals are firm that Nepal will never come out of the present "socio-political mess" without peace talks or a negotiated settlement with the Maoists.
"The government should hold talks before elections. Or else how can it hold elections," said the second-most powerful leader of Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist), K P Oli.
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