While it is nothing unusual to find politicians and their children take a plunge in polls fray, the coming Lok Sabha polls may well go down as unprecedented as far as the number of relatives is concerned.

Politics and the rat race for getting a party ticket to contest polls has also at times tended to put strain on ties among members of the political families, between husband and wife, brother and brother and father and son.

Leader of the opposition and Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul in adjacent constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, Indian Finance Minister Jaswant Singh's son Manavendra in a constituency in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh in their home state and senior Congress leader Murli Deora's son Milind in Mumbai -- all vying for a seat in Lok Sabha.

Apart from Jaswant Singh's son, the BJP has given nomination to the kin of some of its other senior leaders like Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's son Dushyant Singh, former party chief Bangaru Laxman's wife Sushila and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's niece Karuna Shukla.

Not to be outdone, Congress has given tickets to Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushikumar Shinde's wife Ujawala, former Defence Minister Jagjivan Ram's daughter Meira Kumar, late bandit queen turned-politician's Phoolan Devi's husband Umed Singh and Jyotiraiditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot, sons of late party leaders Madhavrao Scindia and Rajesh Pilot respectively.

The Congress has given a ticket to senior tribal leader in eastern state of Orissa Giridhar Gamang to contest parliamentary poll and nominated his wife Hema to fight the elections to state legislature after the ties between the couple were on the verge of breakup over the race for tickets.

Congress also placated its veteran and now dissident leader K Karnunakaran in the southern state of Kerala ruled by the party by giving him a nomination to Rajya Sabha, upper house of Parliament, a nomination to his daughter Padmaja to contest for Lok Sabha and inducting her brother K Muraleedharan into the state cabinet.

In Bihar, ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav, whose wife Rabri Dev is state Chief Minister, is contesting Lok Sabha polls and two of Laloo's brothers-in-law are members of the state legislature.

Two scions of political heavyweights in northern state of Haryana --Ajay Singh, son of state Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, and Surendra Singh, son of former Chief Minister Bansi Lal, have already entered the electoral fray as is Kuldip Bishnoi, son of another former chief minister and senior Congress leader Bhajan Lal.

Former prime minister I K Gujral's son Naresh is a candidate for parliamentary elections in his home state of Punjab as representative of the main opposition party Akali Dal, an ally of BJP.

Gujral's immediate successor and former prime minister H D Devegowda is in parliamentary polls fray in the southern state of Karnataka and his two sons Kumaraswamy and Revanna are aspiring for seats in the state legislature elections which are being held in tandem with Lok Sabha polls. The father and the sons are fighting for tickets of the Janata Dal (Secular) party.

The presence of members of the same family in diverse parties is nothing new. Sonia Gandhi and her son and daughter in Congress, their relatives Maneka and Varun in BJP.

The royal family of Scindia is also divided. The late mother Vijayraje was in BJP and her two daughters, including Vasundhara, are in saffron party even though their late brother Madhavrao was a staunch Congressman. Madhavaro's son Jyotiraditya is in Congress.

The latest addition to the spectacle is Lakshman Singh, brother of senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh state. Lakshman recently joined BJP and got a nomination from a parliamentary constituency, which he had won as a Congress candidate in 1999. Digvijay has said he would campaign to ensure the defeat of his young brother.

Indian Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat is also a senior BJP leader but his nephew Pratap Singh is a Congress candidate for the prestigious Jaipur parliamentary seat in Rajasthan.

When politics become family affair, it does not guarantee harmony among the siblings. Blood may be thicker than water. But political ambitions often prove more powerful.