Bhubaneswar: With a number of leaders filing nominations as independent candidates for the Assembly elections, both ruling BJD and opposition Congress, fearing sabotage within the party, were trying hard to persuade them to withdraw papers.
Though senior BJD leaders were still trying their best to convince rebel candidates of their party, sources said that rebels in Congress were in no mood to follow advice of party's senior leaders Jaydev Jena and Srikant Jena, whom they held responsible for the ticket denial.
BJD's sitting MLA and former minister Anjali Behera has filed papers as an independent candidate for the Hindol Assembly while two sitting MLAs from Keonjhar district Subarna Naik and Baghirathi Sethi also turned rebel.
Senior BJD leader and former minister Duryodhan Majhi and ex-MLA Bhagirathi Gamang also quit and contesting as independent candidates for the April 10 polls.
Keonjhar district BJD vice-president Kusa Apat has filed his paper for Champua Assembly after Patnaik named actor Papu Pom Pom as the official candidate.
Rebel candidates are found in the list of independent candidates in Keonjhar, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Ganjam and Dhenkanal districts.
As Patnaik has denied BJD tickets to three dozen of sitting MLAs, it is natural that rebels would be in the fray, said a senior leader expressing fear that they (rebels) could cause damage to official candidates.
"At some places party leaders have set dummy candidates to dampen the BJD's winning prospects," he said.
However, BJD, sources said, could successfully persuade sitting Phulbani MLA Debendra Kanhar to withdraw his papers along with former minister and sitting Basta MLA Raghunath Mohanty.
Arun Dey, a five-time MLA, who joined BJD, quit BJD to become a Congress candidate from Balasore assembly segment.
Similarly, two-time MLA Jyotirindranath Mitra also quit the BJD and secured a BJP ticket.
Meanwhile, Congress is also hit by the enemies within.
The party's sitting MLA and deputy of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Chakradhar Paik has filed nomination as an independent MLA after being denied a ticket.
While many senior leaders have already quit Congress and joined either BJD, BJP or Trinamool Congress, some have filed nomination as independent candidates.