The Nepalese Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, has suffered a major setback ahead of the parliamentary election.

The country's election commission has refused to recognise Mr Deuba's breakaway faction as the official Nepali Congress party, less than two months before the elections.

The elections are due to be held in November, two years ahead of schedule.

Mr Deuba led the breakaway faction after the Congress split three months ago following his move to extend a state of emergency he had imposed to tackle the long-running Maoist insurgency.

Mainstream

After weeks of legal debates, the election commission decided to recognise the mainstream faction as the official Nepali Congress.

Koirala: Mr Deuba may have to re-unify with his party

The Nepali Congress is led by Mr Deuba's rival and former Prime Minister, Girija Prasad Koirala.

Although the election commission has remained silent on the party's election symbol and flag, experts say it has cleared the way for the Koirala faction to keep the traditional symbol, the tree, and the four-star flag.

The election commission's decision leaves Prime Minister Deuba with two choices; to re-unite with the Koirala faction or set up a new political party.

Re-unification

Analysts believe re-unification of the two factions is now the most likely option.

This would stop the main opposition, the United Marxist-Leninist (UML) party, from taking advantage of the divided votes.

However, doubts about the election persist due to security concerns.

The Maoist rebels, who last week launched heavy attacks on government targets killing more than 100 security personnel, have threatened to disrupt the polls.

Determination

The government has vowed to hold the elections at any cost and has proposed conducting elections in at least five phases.

However, with polls only two months away, there has been no indication of public interest in a campaign yet.

Security concerns and the indecision on the status of the country's largest party, the Nepali Congress, have been blamed for the situation.

While the security concerns have not subsided, the election commission's verdict on the Nepali Congress dispute has cleared at least one uncertainty.