Major political parties, which have already completed the first round of interviews with probable candidates for the Assembly polls, are staring at a rebellion from those who may lose the race for the party ticket.

With a large number of aspiring candidates in each of the eight constituencies in Pune, there are already murmurs from would-be rebels that if they are not allowed to contest, they would join other parties. Some parties may even find it tough to retain a few prominent leaders who have threatened to quit in the event of being denied a ticket.

There are eight assembly seats in the city and all the parties, barring the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), have a large number of aspirants.

Parties that have a pre-poll alliance for the polls are in particular fearing rebellion from sulking leaders who may not get the party ticket. The city unit of BJP and Shiv Sena expect to get four assembly constituencies each while a similar number is on the cards for the Congress and NCP in case they formally announce an alliance.

All political parties have conducted the first round of interviews. The Congress was the first to take stock of the party position and start meeting aspirants when a team of the state Congress unit visited the city last week. The BJP interviewed prospective candidates in Mumbai.

The Shiv Sena and the MNS had directed their probable candidates to take up the campaign a month ago while the NCP had been engaged for the last two days in assessing strength of aspirants.

... contd.