In Congress annals, it is virtually unprecedented to have so many freshers. But Sonia insisted that the ``fatigue factor'' should be taken into account. Consequently, the party has done away with as many as 91 sitting MLAs in MP, working out to 60 per cent, and 21 in Rajasthan (30 pc). Some Ministers have been axed too in MP, around eight, with most of them failing to pass the code of conduct test. There are 167 new faces in the MP list and 93 in the Rajasthan list.

Politically, the Digvijay Singh-Kamal Nath group has bagged most of the seats and is understood to have managed 175 candidates of their choice. Arjun Singh has bagged around 65 seats for hisnominees while Madhavrao Scindia gets 35. However, the seats the Congress expects to win are in the Mahakaushal area and here Kamal Nath's clout has worked. Of the 75 seats in this belt, Nath has about 60 of his nominees fighting the election.

The Gwalior belt, represented by Scindia, and the Vindhya Pradesh, of Arjun Singh, have the ``weaker'' candidates the Congress promised to the BSP. It is in these areas that Kanshi Ram and Mayawati are to field their 120 nominees, leaving the other 200 to the Congress. In the MP list, the Congress has kept its part of the promise and now expects the BSP to reciprocate.

In Rajasthan, the distribution is more or less even with former PCC chief Parasram Maderna, current state unit head Ashok Gehlot and Congress Working Committee member Rajesh Pilot getting their share of seats. Curiously, Natwar Singh hasn't got much out of the Rajasthan list and his son, Janak Singh, too didn't make it. But this is being interpreted as the price he may have to pay for being theleading candidate for the Chief Minister's post should the Congress win in Rajasthan.

Sonia has also struck a balance with respect to star relatives. The sons of Arjun Singh (Ajay Singh), Motilal Vora (Arun Vora), Arvind Netam's brother Shiv Netam, former Rajasthan CM Jagannath Pahadia's wife Shanti Pahadia, former Union Minister Abrar Ahmed's wife Yasmeen Abrar and Rajesh Pilot's wife Rama Pilot made it.

But those who didn't include former MP CM S C Shukla's son Amitesh Shukla, party MP Jhumak Lal Bhedia's son Anil Bhedia, former MPCC chief Parasram Bharadwaj's wife Basanti Yatalwar, MP Speaker Srinivas Tiwari's son Sundar Tiwari and Lok Sabha MP Charan Das Mahant's wife.

Sonia's attempts to give women more say in party affairs have fallen flat with only 22 (out of 320) women being nominated in MP and only 15 (out of nearly 200) in Rajasthan, far short of the 33 per cent the party would have liked.