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Sonia to pick CLP leader
Central observers confer with each MLA individually
Geetanjali Gayatri
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 23
The Haryana Congress Legislature Party met here this evening for over an hour. As expected, it authorised AICC president Sonia Gandhi to nominate its leader.

A resolution to this effect was adopted unanimously at the first meeting of the newly elected MLAs. Later, three central party observers, Mohsina Kidwai, Prithviraj Chavan, AICC general secretary in charge of party affairs in Haryana and BK Hariprasad, met every MLA individually to elicit his/her opinion on the leadership issue.

Briefing the media after the meeting, Chavan said now they would meet the party MPs from Haryana in Delhi tomorrow after which Sonia Gandhi would take the final decision.

He said barring union minister Selja, Karnal MP Arvind Sharma and Faridabad MP Avtar Singh Bhadana, all other MPs were present at the meeting.

Tourism Minister Kiran Choudhry, her MP daughter Shruti, and Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjeet Singh came to the meeting held in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, after the central leaders had arrived. They were the first to leave.

The CLP passed a resolution, thanking Sonia and Rahul Gandhi for campaigning in Haryana during the assembly elections.

It is not known if another meeting of the CLP would be convened to elect the leader as had happened in 2005. At that time, after the first meeting of the CLP had authorised Sonia to decide the leader, another meeting was held in Delhi, where Hooda was elected leader of the CLP, paving the way for his becoming Chief Minister, overriding the claim of the then president of the Haryana Congress, Bhajan Lal.

In this context Chavan said the laid out procedure would be followed. Asked if the HJC headed by Kuldeep Bishnoi would also extend support to the Congress, Chavan refused to say anything. He said he had come here to attend the CLP meeting alone and would not discuss anything else. “A lot of things are going on,” he remarked.

When Sonia and Rahul had come to Haryana for campaigning, they had hinted that Hooda would continue to head the Congress government after the elections. Earlier, the seven Independent candidates held a separate meeting and adopted a resolution stating their support to the Congress was unconditional.