India, Jan. 2 -- With the deadline for withdrawal of nomination forms ending today, political parties across the spectrum spent Thursday reaching out to rebel candidates from their own ranks, urging them to withdraw from the fray to avoid damaging official prospects in the upcoming civic polls.

Leaders said the surge in rebel candidates was largely triggered by delays in announcing official candidate lists and uncertainty over alliances, prompting many aspirants to file nominations as a precaution. Rebels from almost all major parties have entered the contest in several wards, complicating seat-sharing arrangements and threatening to split votes.

Party insiders said that instead of first releasing formal candidate lists, several parties...