In his letter to the party president, Sonia Gandhi, Bhawanji, who is also a businessman and enjoys a good standing in his constituency, says: ``I am totally disillusioned and disappointed with the functioning of the Congress (I) party... in spite of my repeated appeals and requests to consider me as a candidate, my request has not been considered.'' The letter should also be treated as a resignation letter from his position in the Seva Dal, he adds.

The Congress has predictably dismissed the disgruntlement as a matter of routine after ticket distribution and nomination. However, there are chances of this reflecting in the campaign where the rejected aspirant may not gothe complete distance in canvassing votes for the candidate. Senior leaders say that the discontent is less this time around mainly because of the split during which many Congressmen chose Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), leaving fewer aspirants in the fray.

Yet another case of discontent is Nirmala Samant-Prabhavalkar, former mayor of Mumbai and a key figure in the party's women's wing. She was in readiness for fighting from the Bandra assembly constituency and had even approached Sonia Gandhi to justify her candidature on the principle of 33 per cent reservation for women. However, when the list was finalised, she found that she was elbowed out by Baba Siddiqui whose candidature was apparently backed by actor and MP aspirant Sunil Dutt. Nirmala Samant-Prabhavalkar believes that the party leadership was wrongly briefed about her affiliation to Pawar, resulting in her being denied the ticket.

Party leaders say that the discontent is just beginning to manifest itself, and postponing theprocess of ticket distribution to the very last has not really helped. In terms of constituency, Mumbai North-West -- where Dutt is contesting for the Lok Sabha -- seems to have the largest number of rejected aspirants and disgruntled workers. ``It seems as if Dutt was able to get his way through in the sense that he got candidates of his choice for the assembly constituencies. Usually, Murli Deora, Mumbai Regional Congress Committee chief, has his say all the way,'' said a party insider.

Meanwhile, Congress released its campaign material and paraphernalia including audio cassettes that will be played at all public meetings. Reaching the material to constituencies now is a task in itself, particularly those that poll on September 5, say party workers.