Haryana polls: Rebellion fear delays Cong list, nomination deadline looms

Fears of rebels jumping ship or filing as independents has delayed the Congress list for the October 5 Haryana elections though the nomination deadline ends on Thursday.

The long wait for the list continued on Wednesday also with the party deciding against releasing it all day even until 11 pm to ensure those left out have no effective chance of a rebellion.

With the party reconciled to naming the remaining candidates only at the last minute, potential rebels will have a chance of neither switching the party nor filing as independents.

This is the first time in recent history that the Congress has delayed its candidate list for so long.

The decision on all pending seats was taken on Monday by the party's sub-committee which sent the single panel names on all pending seats for approval to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.

Congress sources told The Tribune the party has a strategy ready and may have sounded the final nominees verbally before officially releasing the list. The formal documents needed for nomination tomorrow have also been kept ready, the Tribune has learnt.

The Congress had declared 41 candidates in the first go and has since simply sat on the issue.

Unable to reach a consensus on many candidates the central poll panel had constituted a sub-committee that was tasked with finalising the seats.

The sub-committee held four rounds of talks.

It consisted of Congress screening committee Haryana chairman Ajay Makan and members TS Singhdeo, Manickam Tagore and BV Srinivas and co-opted CLP leader Bhupinder Hooda and state chief Udai Bhan.