Decision on
Rajasthan
&
Chhattisgarh
put off to
Friday
Bhopal/New Delhi: The Congress Thursday night named veteran leader Kamal Nath as Madhya Pradesh’s next chief minister, after hours of hectic parleys held by party chief Rahul Gandhi with senior party leaders.
Nath, 72, reached Bhopal late at night to be greeted with chants of “Jai Jai Kamal Nath” by his supporters at the airport and headed straight for the party office for a meeting of the newly-elected MLAs to select their leader.
Nath, who served as Union minister in the previous Congress-led governments, has been a top contender for the chief minister post ever since his party won against the ruling BJP, which was in power in the state for 15 years.
Another senior party leader and former union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia was also in the race.
“Our best wishes to Shri @OfficeOfKNath for being elected CM of Madhya Pradesh. An era of change is upon MP with him at the helm,” the Congress tweeted.
The party president earlier deferred the decisions on chief ministers of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh for Friday as he wanted to hold further discussions with party leaders, Congress sources said, even as one of the top contenders for the desert state, Sachin Pilot, met the party chief for a second time late Thursday night.
Gandhi held discussions with party leaders in Chhattisgarh Thursday to decide on the new chief minister for the state, the party sources said, but postponed the decision to Friday for holding wider discussions with the contenders.
The Congress chief had earlier held a series of meetings with CM aspirants in Rajasthan – Ashok Gehlot and Pilot – but no consensus emerged between the two and Pilot asserted his right for the top post.
Pilot’s supporters also shouted slogans in his favour outside Gandhi’s residence.
While Gehlot is learnt to be leading the race for chief minister’s post, Pilot is also putting up stiff resistance and is staking his claim.
Pilot visited Gandhi’s residence again late at night amid speculation on whether the race was still open and could go down to the wire. The party president also met the central observer for the state KC Venugopal and the AICC state in-charge Avinash Pande for the second time.
Gandhi held a late evening meeting with party’s central observer Mallikarjun Kharge, who said further deliberations will take place Friday with state leaders before arriving at a final decision on chief minister.
AICC in-charge of party affairs in Chhattisgarh PL Punia was also present during the meeting with Gandhi.
“The meeting has been postponed for tomorrow. There will be a meeting again tomorrow,” Kharge told reporters after meeting Gandhi.
The sources said TS Singh Deo and Bhupesh Baghel have also been called to the national capital from Raipur for discussions with top party leaders.