Congress leaders from Haryana on saturday held a series of consultations to arrive at a consensus for the post of Chief Minister in the state, where the party is all set to form government.
The meeting of the state leaders, who included the MPs from the state, came a day after the Congress Legislature Party at its meeting in Chandigarh authorised Congress President Sonia Gandhi to pick a candidate for the chief ministership, party sources said.
The leaders, who met at the residence of AICC observer for Haryana Mohsina Kidwai, included Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Haryana Congress president Phool Chand Mullana, all nine party MPs from the state and former CLP leader Ajay Yadav.
While Hooda was absent in the first meeting this morning, he joined the leaders for the second round of discussions that took place later in the day, sources said.
AICC observer Prithviraj Chavan, who is also party general secretary in-charge of the state, and another observer B K Hariprasad were present during the discussions to arrive at a consensus.
It is not immediately known whose name the meeting recommended for leadership in the state.
Sources said the AICC observers would convey to Gandhi the outcome of the meeting.
They said the AICC observers had already submitted a report to Gandhi on the feed back from the newly-elected MLAs, who met in Chandigarh yesterday.
Congress won 40 seats in the 90-member state assembly in the elections this month, six short of simple majority.
However, the party got the support of all seven Independents MLAs and staked claim to form government after meeting the Governor yesterday. Since then, there have been a suspense whether Hooda would be allowed to continue by the party high command, considering that the party performed below expectations in the assembly polls.
Other strong contenders for the Chief Minister's chair are union minister Kumari Selja and state minister Kiran Chaudhary, both of whom had met Gandhi after the assembly poll results were out. PTI
