The five including Puran Doshi, corporator from ward 1, Vijaya Dhulla, ward 4 corporator, Annie Shekhar, ward 3 corportor and Kanti Dhulla and Vinod Shekhar, were livid over the party's choice of Marazban Patrawala as the Congress candidate for the prestigious Colaba constituency.

The corporators resigned from the party yesterday and as a sign of dissent boycotted Murli Deora's filing of nomination papers on Monday.

``Four of us will withdraw our nominations after unanimously deciding on one consensus candidate on Wednesday,'' Puran Doshi told Express Newsline. He said all the Congress workers in the constituency would work against Patrawala in the polls.

The move can immediately place in jeopardy any chance that the Congress (I) has of winning the seat, the only one it could retain in thecity after it's 1995 assembly election debacle. The sitting MLA Ashok Dhatrak has now joined forces with Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

However, Mumbai Congress President Murli Deora said that the issue would be settled soon. ``They are all good corporators, they will listen to me and everything will be alright,'' he claimed.

When asked how he supported Patrawala's candidacy when the latter had indirectly caused his first-ever defeat from the prestigious south Mumabi Lok Sabha seat in 1996, Deora replied: ``I believe in forget and forgive and compromises in politics.

The rebel corporators presented Deora with an ultimatum on Monday evening. They decided to file nominations after Deora reportedly pleaded helplessness in the face of the high command's insistence that Patrawala be given the seat. ``Many Congress workers had filed applications for the assembly seat, we were caught unawares when Patrawala was nominated,'' said Kanti Dhulla.

A minister in the Sudhakkarao Naik and SharadPawar cabinets, Patrawala quit the party in 1995 after he failed to get renominated for the Colaba assembly seat. In the 1996 Lok Sabha polls, he contested as the Samajwadi Party candidate and was indirectly responsible for the defeat of sitting MP Murli Deora. He rejoined the Congress party last year.

According to the rebel corporators, Patrawala was responsible for the proliferation of slums in Colaba and Cuffe Parade. He was denied the seat by the Congress after a woman was set ablaze in a slum in Cuffe Parade.

Patrawala, a lawyer, was one of the counsels for Kapil Sibal when he successfully stymied attempts by Sharad Pawar's NCP to get the charkha symbol. The rebels believe he has been rewarded for this.