The Congress party released its list of 40 candidates for the Haryana Assembly elections around midnight Wednesday, just one day before the deadline for filing nominations. Shortly after, at around 2 a.m. Thursday, they added five more names, and two additional candidates were announced Thursday morning. However, there are still two seats, where Congress MP Kumari Selja has influence, for which candidates have not yet been named.

The delay is attributed to internal conflicts within the party. Sources indicate that former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda raised last-minute objections to the candidate selections for about half a dozen seats, most of whom were considered political newcomers.

For instance, Hooda objected to the nomination of “exam warrior” Shweta Dhull from Kalayat, despite a senior Congress leader supporting her. Hooda’s ally and Hisar MP Jai Prakash was pushing for his son, Vikas Saharan, to get the ticket, and ultimately Saharan was included in the final list of 40 candidates.

In Kosli, Hooda opposed Youth Congress leader Rahul Rao’s nomination, which instead went to Jagadish Yadav, a former state minister who joined the Congress from the BJP last year.

There was also contention over candidates for Ambala City and Ambala Cantonment. Hooda’s close associates, Nirmal Singh and his daughter Chitra Sarwara, sought tickets for these constituencies, but Selja, who has previously represented the Ambala parliamentary seat, opposed their candidacies. Singh received the ticket for Ambala City, while the Ambala Cantonment seat went to Parimal Pari.

In 2019, Hooda had lobbied for Singh’s nomination but faced opposition from Selja, resulting in Singh running as an Independent and losing. Singh rejoined Congress in January after a stint with AAP. Sarwara also ran independently in 2019 but did not win.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who had been in Jammu and Kashmir, returned to Delhi in the evening to address the issue. After a meeting with screening committee chairman Ajay Maken, the party finalized the list of 40 candidates shortly after 11:30 p.m.

The party is still to announce candidates for the Sohna and Bhiwani constituencies. There are concerns that those left out might join rival parties like the Indian National Lok Dal or the Aam Aadmi Party and file nominations at the last minute. Meanwhile, the BJP has already released its full slate of candidates.