FAISALABAD: The PML-N candidates for the upcoming local elections are facing their own party workers as `independent` opponents in most of city union councils, mainly because of the tussle between the two stalwarts -Law Minister Rana Sanaullah and former city mayor Sher Ali.

Faisalabad has 346 union councils -157 urban and 189 rural.

Earlier, the district had 289 UCs comprising urban and rural areas.

The city area candidates will have a tough time because of the tussle between Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah and former mayor Sher Ali, who is father of State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali.

Owing to their differences, nota single PML-N ticket has been issued to any candidate in PP-70, the constituency of Rana Sanaullah, which is the allied constituency of NA-84 from where Abid Sher Ali got elected as MNA.

The party has declared the entire PP-70 constituency open and now candidates being backed by Rana Sana are contesting with diamond as there election symbol and those of Sher Ali with `bucket` as theirs.

Mr Sher Ali has launched his `Mayor Group` focusing on city area UCs where PML-N has awarded tickets to it candidates.

In the election gatherings, the PML-N parliamentarians having affiliation with Rana Sana group are mobilising the voters for the party candidates.

On the contrary, the Mayor Group is trying to woo the voters by alleging that the party parliamentarians have given tickets to their blue-eyed people only to have their say in the local politics, instead of empowering the workers.

A city area candidate for UCchairman slot told Dawn he was facing numerous problems because of the differences between the two groups.

He complained that though he was given the PML-N ticket for his `services` for the party but some party leaders were canvassing against him in the constituency.

Such leaders, he said, wanted to `teach a lesson` to their rival parliamentarians who had proposed his name for the ticket.

The prevailing situation would bring a bad name to the party and cause enmities among different political families, he deplored.

The youth was annoyed with this kind of politics and they were criticising the party leadership on the social media, he added.

Mr Sher Ali, who is also a close relative of the Sharifs, severely criticised the whole ticket-awarding mechanism, saying the loyal and old workers of the partyhadbeenignoredbytheparliamentarians who landed in the party only a couple of years ago.

He alleged Rana Sanaullah wasmishandling affairs of Faisalabad at the behest of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

He reiterated his allegation that the law minister was involved in the killing of 20 people in the city.

He said the party leadership`s decision to authorise MPAs and MNAs to award tickets would yield no fruit because they had only obliged their `financial supporters`.

An MPA seeking anonymity said the PML-N activists in the city had no issue with regard to awarding tickets by the party parliamentarians in different UCs.

Only the Mayor Group was opposing the decision which, he said, was unjustified.

He said actually the leadership`s decision to award tickets on the recommendation of party lawmakers had ended the `monopoly` of Mr Sher Ali in choosing the candidates which he enjoyed in the past.

Denying that PML-N parliamentarians had given tickets to their financial supporters, he saidin such a situation the Mayor Group would have instigated workers in all city constituencies to stage protest demonstrations.

He claimed the party workers were happy with the decisions of parliamentarians and actively taking part in the electioneering.

However, Mr Sher Ali predicted that election results would reveal that the candidates fielded by the parliamentarians were a `wrong choice` and that genuine party workers were ignored.

`We have launched the Mayor Group to stop the disgruntled party workers from joining the PTI,` he claimed.

Tahir Zaman, contesting from UC-75 and being backed by Mayor Group, said he was denied the PML-N ticket despite serving jail terms for the party and remaining loyal to it even under Musharraf regime.

He alleged that the party parliamentarians who were new comers ignored old workers and `sold` the tickets.