The chaos in the Kolhapur North Assembly segment on the last day of withdrawal of nominations on Monday was in many ways a microcosm of what is being dubbed as a “free-for-all” electoral battle in Maharashtra.

The constituency, a Congress stronghold, will go to the polls on November 20 without an official party candidate. Madhurima Raje, the daughter-in-law of Congress’s Kolhapur MP and royal family member Shahu Maharaj, sprung a surprise at the eleventh hour on Monday by withdrawing her nominations.

The fiasco was the result of deep factionalism at the local level. The Congress had initially nominated local leader Rajesh Latkar by dropping its sitting MLA Rajesh Kshirsagar, who had rebelled and joined the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.

Later, the Congress replaced Latkar with Madhurima because of some undisclosed compulsion. Latkar went ahead and filed his nomination as an Independent. The Congress failed to convince Latkar to withdraw his nomination. Madhurima took this as an “insult” and withdrew, insiders said.

An embarrassed Congress has now rushed to name Latkar as its candidate. In a damage-control exercise, Shahu Maharaj issued a statement on Tuesday and said his daughter-in-law had withdrawn as a “mark of respect for a common party worker”.

He said Congress leaders had assured the family that Latkar would withdraw but he did not and Madhurima decided to pull out. “We will all work hard now to ensure the victory of Latkar,” the MP said.

The Maharashtra election is being dubbed as one the state had perhaps never seen — a free-for-all scramble to grab a share in the power pie. On the broader horizon, the fight is between two alliances — the Mahayuti and the Maha Vikas Aghadi — with three parties on either side. The incumbent coalition has the BJP, the Ekanth Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP, while the Opposition bloc has the Congress, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP.

But there are over half a dozen smaller parties with substantial influence in pockets.

The most significant role, however, will be played by hundreds of Independents, many of whom are party rebels who have stayed put, ignoring warnings of disciplinary action by their leaders.

Despite the best efforts of leaders of both alliances, some 38 credible rebels have lingered on the electoral battlefield.

“We managed to convince around a dozen of our rebels to withdraw on Monday. But still some 10 have stayed and they could damage us,” a BJP leader said. A Shiv Sena (Shinde) MP said that over half a dozen of their rebels, too, were in the fray.

One such key seat is Mahim where the MNS has propped up party boss Raj Thackeray’s son Amit Thackeray. The MNS candidate was announced after Shinde’s Shiv Sena had already nominated sitting party MLA Sada Sarvankar. The BJP asked Shinde to get Sarvankar to withdraw, arguing that they needed to back Amit to use his vote-cutting capabilities in other Mumbai seats. Sarvankar refused to withdraw and is contesting on the Sena’s bow and arrow symbol. Going solo, the MNS has fielded around 25 candidates, mostly in Mumbai, and most of them are expected to act as “vote spoilers”.

Managers from each of the two alliances said the elections were being fought on many levels and that there were “wheels within wheels” with leaders fighting their opponents and partners at the same time.