Unrelenting rebels are all set to play spoilsport in the ensuing Assembly elections when it comes to wrestling power for the key players BJP and Congress in Himachal Pradesh.

This is for the first time in the history of the state that there are many rebels in the electoral fray and are likely to have a rippling effect on the political parties in the fray.

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The state will go to polls in all 68 Assembly Constituencies (ACs) on 12 November.

While BJP was hopeful to placate the rebels till the last date of withdrawal of nomination which ended on October 29, however, their efforts have met little success as battered with dissidence, it still continues to be under duress as rebels are contesting around one and a half dozen seats.

BJP is vying to change the tradition with the ‘mission repeat’ to retain power, however, the rebel factor has put the party in a tight spot.

Besides, a number of aspirants including former MLAs, denial of tickets to its 11 sitting MLAs, tickets allotted to sitting MLAs including two Congress and an independent who joined BJP lately, are considered to be the factors that have caused bitterness and dissidence.

In Kangra district which has the highest number of ACs 15 and plays a major role in deciding the fate of the political party, BJP has four rebels Vipin Nehria in Dharamshala, Kripal Parmar in Fatehpur, Kulbhushan Chand Chaudhary in Kangra, Manohar Dhiman in Indora contesting elections.

Mandi, the home district of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur having 10 ACs has three rebels contesting the polls, Abhishek Thakur contesting in Sunder Nagar, Praveen Sharma in Mandi and Gian Chauhan in Nachan.

There are game spoilers for BJP in all the four ACs in Kullu district that include Kishori Lal in Anni, Hiteshwar Thakur in Banjar, Ram Singh in Kullu and Mahender Thakur in Manali.

Sanjeev Sharma in Barsar, Naresh Kumar in Hamirpur Sadar in Hamirpur district are the rebels in Hamirpur district that has 5 ACs.

Subhash Sharma in Bilaspur Sadar, Tejwant in Kinnaur and Indra Kapoor in Chamba Sadar and K L Thakur in Nalagarh have decided to go their own way and enter the electoral fray.

Meanwhile, Congress to some extent has been able to mollify the rebels although they were less as compared to the rival party.

Nonetheless, the party struggling hard to come to power will face a challenge as rebels are likely to sway the victory margins that are thin in the past Assembly elections in the state.

The prominent rebels include veteran Congress leader and former minister Gangu Ram Musafir in Pachhad (Sirmaur district), two-time MLA Jagjeevan Pal in Sullah (Kangra), two-time MLA Subhash Manglate in Chopal (Shimla district), Sushil Kumar in Jaisinghpur (Kangra district), Mukesh Thakur in Jaswan Pragpur (Kangra) and Rajinder Thakur in Arki (Solan district).