Alongside big players, new entrants and fresh alliances building in the run-up are livening up the political scene in Haryana where elections are due next month.
The Jan Chetna Party (JCP) was recently launched by former Union Minister and ex-MLA Ambala Venod Sharma, who snapped his four-decade old ties with the Congress.
A few days back, Sharma, a prominent Brahmin leader, stitched an alliance with Kuldeep Bishnoi-led Haryana Janhit Congress after the HJC broke its three-year-old alliance with BJP accusing them of repeated betrayal.
Both the parties have decided to jointly contest the upcoming polls, with Sharma having declared Bishnoi as the chief ministerial candidate.
Sharma, once a close confidant of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, has accused the state government of "neglecting" the entire northern belt of Haryana in development and jobs.
Independent MLA from Sirsa and former Haryana Minister Gopal Kanda, who is currently out on bail in connection with a suicide case of an airhostess Geetika Sharma, launched the Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP) in May after withdrawing his support to the Hooda government and has announced to contest on all the 90 assembly seats.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), whose top leaders including Arvind Kejriwal and Yogendra Yadav hail from Haryana, would have been another new outfit in the fray this time, but the party decided against entering the fray in the state.
New permutations and combinations are building up as the polls draw near.
For the ruling Congress, which is eying a hat-trick, the road ahead may not be an easy one, as it faces anti-incumbency and is plagued with a series of desertions both before and after the Lok Sabha polls that include exodus of senior leaders like Birender Singh, Rao Inderjit Singh, Venod Sharma, besides former MPs Arvind Sharma and Avtar Singh Bhadana.
However, the Congress is "hopeful" of pulling off a third successive win, with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda maintaining that people will vote back his party on the basis of the all-round development works and welfare schemes started by the state government for various sections.
