The Congress party won the Himachal Pradesh election with a comfortable majority of 40 seats in the 68-seat Legislative Assembly, however the grand old party has not managed to come to a decision on who the state chief minister will be. A number of names are doing the rounds, and the leaders seem to be jostling each other for the top post.
What happened on Friday? A meeting of the newly elected MLAs was held at the party office in Shimla on Friday, 9 December, to choose the chief minister. The meeting was supposed to begin at 3 pm but it had to be postponed till 8 pm.
Supporters of CM hopefuls come face-to-face: Supporters of state Congress chief Pratibha Singh and those of party campaign committee chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu were seen coming to face-to-face outside the party office, shouting slogans in support of their respective leaders. Pratibha Singh's supporters also stopped the car of party’s in-charge for the State, Rajeev Shukla, in Shimla and gave slogans.
What was decided in the meeting? The meeting was attended by Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Rajeev Shukla. However, no consensus was reached and a resolution was passed that the high command should choose the leader to lead the state.
“We (observers) will submit our report to the high command tomorrow, appraising the high command that a resolution has been passed by the MLAs with consensus authorising the high command to choose the leader.”– Rajeev Shukla