With the Vidhan Sabha elections in Haryana nearing, there seems to be growing hostility among senior and youth leaders across all party lines.

While the ruling Congress party played it safe by declaring its candidate just two days before the filing of nominations closed on September 25 — leaving little time for its members to switch parties or contest as Independent candidates — party insiders feel that the move may still fail to get full-hearted support from the members.

Haryana’s four Assembly constituencies — Gurgaon, Badshapur, Sohna and Pataudi ¿ go to polls on October 13.

Congress decision to choose the sitting MLA Dharambir Gauba as its candidate over more popular Madan Lal Grover, district Congress president (urban) and G L Sharma, local leader may lead to factionalism within the party and harm its performance feel poll observers.

Both Grover and Sharma are said to be close to the sitting MP from Gurgaon, Rao Inderjeet Singh.

On the other hand, BJP has already seen rebellion within the party when it decided to pitch Umesh Aggarwal from Gurgaon. Party members went to the extent of burning an effigy of senior BJP leader and in-charge of party affairs, Haryana, Vijay Goel and holding protest demonstrations.

Political pundits, meanwhile, have dubbed the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) candidate M R Sharma as mild. Sharma, who was associated with Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) earlier, does not enjoy the support of party members.

In fact, INLD’s choice has lead to large-scale bitterness among both senior party workers and the youth wing of the party. As a mark of protest, INLD youth wing state vice-president Sukhbir Kataria furnished his resignation and filed his nomination as an Independent candidate from Gurgaon on Thursday.

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