The civic bodies elections due in December have sparked a war within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as well as the Congress in Chhattisgarh.

Taking advantage of the widespread discontent in the two parties is the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which is offering "instant tickets" to anyone who wishes to contest the Dec 20 and 23 polls under its umbrella.

Members of both the Congress and the BJP are accusing party leaders of giving the party ticket to their favourites, overlooking the concerns of those who they argued deserved them.

In Raipur, hundreds of BJP cadres have revolted against the alleged bias in ticket distribution and urged the party's central leadership to step in. A worried BJP has replaced 20 candidates in Durg district but at the same time warned party members against challenging the official line.

"The revolt over ticket allocation will not be tolerated. People have to behave properly; otherwise they will be given the boot," senior BJP leader Lakhiram Agrawal warned.

The situation is worse in the Congress, which is yet to recover from the shock of its drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year.

Angry Congress members last week mobbed and pushed around veteran party leaders Motilal Vora and Shyama Charan Shukla, a three-time chief minister of undivided Madhya Pradesh.

The three people who had the final say in ticket distribution in the Congress were Vora, Shukla and former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi. None of them has been spared in the mudslinging that is going on.

On Sunday some senior functionaries broke down when the Congress threw up a surprise candidate, Gurumukh Singh Hora, for the Raipur mayor election.

The rebels accused their leaders of taking money from Hora to award him the ticket - an allegation the party bosses angrily denied.

Protesting the decision, hundreds of party workers gathered at the party office and the VIP Guest House, literally forcing Vora and Shukla rushing to New Delhi.

On Monday night, two party factions fought a pitched battle at the Raipur residence of Shukla, and state party's general secretary Subhash Sharma was assaulted.

But Jogi is brushing aside the protests as a natural phenomenon. "It's difficult to make everybody happy," Jogi told IANS. "Everything will be normal within a week, but the protest is definitely beyond our imagination."

--Indo-Asian News Service