LARKANA, April 20: Perhaps for the first time in Larkana’s history since the city was ‘conquered’ by the charismatic PPP founder, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, PPP candidates are facing their own comrades and dissidents in election for two National Assembly and four provincial assembly seats.

The situation can turn the tables on the Pakistan Peoples Party which had relied way too much on expected division of the votes of opposition parties and independents to return to assemblies.

In the past, no PPP leader could have dared file nomination papers against his colleagues or back party rivals in election but the impossible is happening now in almost all constituencies across the province.

The development is an outcome of a growing sense of alienation among diehard workers and veteran leaders from the central leadership, which severely weakened the party’s organisational structure over the past five years, say political analysts.

The preceding years have seen the gulf between the leadership and workers only widen by each passing day. The malaise left unattended for years is now acutely making itself felt as the party prepares to return to power, they say.

The party which swept to power after the 2008 election on a sympathy wave following the assassination of its chairperson Benazir Bhutto and won most of the seats with overwhelming majority appears to be in disarray.

Interviews with a number of party leaders and workers suggest that the PPP leadership has failed to keep workers in the loop during its five years of rule, and above all turned a deaf ear to workers’ complaints against leaders.

The most common complaint shared by all workers and estranged leaders was that the party had ignored them while doling out jobs and development works. Even the promise made by former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gillani in his maiden speech in the parliament that Larkana would be developed into a model district has not been honoured, they regret.

They point to a tale of nepotism and favouritism which, according to them, is hugely responsible for the current imbroglio. Immediately after the party came to power, the Larkana district was virtually handed over to the party’s district president Ayaz Soomro for all practical purposes, they said.

After he was made a minister, they said, he chose his most trusted man, Khair Mohammad Shaikh, district vice president, to run the show after manoeuvring to keep senior vice president Shafqat Soomro in Karachi, away from day-to-day organisational matters of the party. Mysteriously, Mr Soomro, too, chose to stay in the metropolis for the past five years.

Electioneering has picked up momentum with candidates of almost all major political parties and a fair number of independents and dissidents vying for NA-204 (Larkana-I) and NA-205 (Larkana-II), PS-35 (Larkana-I), PS-26 (Larkana-II), PS-37 (Larkana-III) and PS-41 (Larkana-VII).

There are 35 candidates in the run for PS-35. Prominent among them are; Haji Altaf Unnar (PPP), Sarfraz Bughio (PML-F), Shafqat Hussain Unnar (independent), former PPP office-bearer Tarique Siyal (independent) and Hizbullah Bughio (PPP).

Altaf Unnar will have to brace for a tough fight with Tarique Siyal who has recently quit the PPP along with former PPP MPA Ghulam Serwar Siyal and attained more power after his family’s reunion with former foes, the PML-Q’s Babu Serwar Siyal and his family.

The PS-36 constituency which comprises areas falling in Larkana Municipal Corporation limits will witness a contest between Sindh Assembly Speaker and senior PPP leader Nisar Ahmed Khuhro who won the seat twice in the 2002 and 2008 elections, and Syed Deedar Ali Shah, general secretary of the PPP Larkana city chapter.

Other contestants for the seat are Ghinwa Bhutto (PPP-SB), Sardar Rizwan Kehar (PML-N), Nazeer Ahmed Shaikh (PML-F), Ms Leela aka Kalpana Devi (PML-Q), Khalid Iqbal Memon, former PPP MNA and others.

Mr Shah defied the party’s decision and filed papers against Mr Khuhro. There are reports he had flatly refused to pull out of the race when Ayaz Soomro had tried to persuade him to do so.

There are 33 candidates of different political parties and independents in the run for PS-37. The PPP’s Mohammad Ali Bhutto, a comparatively new entrant, will have to lock horns with a heavyweight, former MPA Amir Bakhsh Bhutto, son of Sardar Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, who is contesting on a PML-N ticket, and a ‘rebel’ PPP leader Saifullah Abro.

The party leadership preferred Mohammad Ali Bhutto over senior leaders apparently to cash in on his vote-puller Bhutto surname. Besides, the party may also have taken into account the fact that former Sindh law minister Ayaz Soomro had faced stiff opposition on this seat in past. Mr Soomro has now been asked to contest NA-204.

Saifullah Abro, also a new entrant in the PPP, claims having support of party high command. He pulled out of race for NA-207 in favour of Ms Faryal Talpur but decided to stay in the ring against Amir Bakhsh Bhutto.

Local PPP leaders consider Mohammad Ali Bhutto a weak candidate in comparison to his opponent Amir Bakhsh but two PPP candidates vying for the same seat will definitely divide votes to the advantage of their common rival.

There are as many as 55 contestants for PS-41. The PPP has allotted a ticket to an old and tested candidate, Aziz Ahmed Jatoi, who had won the seat twice in the 2002 and 2008 general election.

But Mr Jatoi will not have an easy sail this time as he will to face off his own party colleague Allah Bakhsh Unnar besides Syed Rafay Akbar Rashdi (PML-F), Faqeer Pervaiz Ahmed Pechuho (independent), Imdad Cholyani (PML-N), Dr Moula Bakhsh Junejo (independent) and Dr Roshan Ali Pechuho (PML-N).

For NA-204, the PPP has fielded former Sindh law minister Ayaz Soomro who faces stiff opposition from former jiyalas Moazzam Ali Abbasi, son of former PPP MPA Haji Munwwar Ali Abbasi, former federal minister and PPP MNA Shahid Bhutto and Ms Mehtab Akbar Rashdi. A total of 44 contestants are in the run for the NA seat.

On NA-205, the PPP’s Nazeer Ahmed Bughio will have to face Dr Safdar Ali Abbasi, a dissident and former political secretary to Benazir Bhutto. Besides them, 36 candidates are in the fray for the seat.