Varanasi (UP), Nov 25 (IANS): Two lobbies, two candidates from one party in one constituency.

Former Congress MP Rajesh Mishra is supporting the candidature of Sanjeev Singh for the upcoming elections in graduates' constituency of the legislative council.

Former MLA Ajay Rai, on the other hand, is rallying behind Nageshwar Singh.

Both the candidates are independents but claim the support of the Congress.

The Ajay Rai-backed candidate, Nageshwar Singh , has the support of the party's district and city unit while Rajesh Mishra has opened office of Sanjeev Singh at his residence.

According to Rajesh Mishra, "Congress support had been promised to Sanjeev at the time of his joining the party about 10 months ago. When Sanjeev had joined, a letter was issued by Congress general secretary Mukul Wasnik making it clear that he has been authorised by party's interim president Sonia Gandhi to contest MLC election from Varanasi. So, Sanjeev worked hard and filed his nomination."

Ajay Rai, meanwhile, said, "Sanjeev was not given authorization letter by UPCC president and state election in-charge and has filed nomination as Independent."

He justified his support to Nageshwar claiming he had bagged over 13,000 votes in the last MLC election as Independent.

The party's city chief Raghvendra Chaubey said Sanjeev had been alerted in September that he was not putting his best, and hence, the district and city units preferred Nageshwar.

He admitted that the Congress did not allot party symbol to any candidate in Varanasi constituency.

Ajay Rai claims that majority of party leaders and workers are supporting Nageshwar.

Rajesh Mishra claims that Sanjeev Singh will put in a better performance.

Congress leaders and party workers in Varanasi are flummoxed at the prevailing situation.

"All other parties are fighting to win and the Congress is fighting with each other. What is even more shocking that there has been no intervention by either the state leadership or the central leadership in the matter," said a senior party leader.

A party leader in Lucknow said that since both candidates were Congressmen, the party would wait till the results.

"The state leadership will adopt the one who wins because the situation is rather tricky at the moment. Both Ajay Rai and Rajesh Mishra are powerful leaders in their own right and cannot put any one of them down," the leader said.

The polls to the UP Legislative Council for graduates' and teachers' constituencies are scheduled to be held on December 1 and counting of votes will take place on December 3.