Congress infighting can affect its poll prospects in some key constituencies such as Faridabad and Bhiwani-Mahendragarh in the Lok Sabha elections. The infighting in the party could be the main reason behind the cancellation of the Prime Minister's visit to Faridabad yesterday.

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was to address a public rally at Faridabad in the afternoon, in favour of sitting Congress MP Avtar Singh Bhadana.The PM was scheduled to to go Faridabad after his election rally in Pehowa in the Kurukshetra Parliamentary constituency. His visit was cancelled at the last minute.

The official reason given was that the PM's plane could not take off due to inclement weather. However, according to sources, the real reason for this was the poor crowd response, which could have embarrassed the organisers as well as the chief guests.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Haryana Congress Party affairs incharge Prithiviraj Chavan Avtar Singh Bhadana and some other top Congress leaders were present at the rally, but the absence of the Prime Minister robbed the rally of its star campaigner.

The BJP finds itself on a strong footing in Faridabad, whereas the Congress has been facing trouble in the constituency right from the day Bhadana was renominated the party candidate. Minister for Urban Local Bodies A C Chaudhry and MLAs Karan Singh Dalal and Mahendra Pratap Singh had rebelled against the party decision. Calling it a neglect of the Punjabi community, Chaudhry had submitted his resignation to the Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Chaudhry's resignation was yet to be accepted by the party, but he kept himself away from any campaign either in Faridabad or elsewhere.

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