Shinde elected CLP leader

Sushilkumar Shinde, 61, was on Thursday elected leader of the Congress legislature party in Maharashtra.

He will succeed Vilasrao Deshmukh as chief minister.

His election came after three days of intense activities triggered by the Congress high command's decision to remove Deshmukh.

Shinde was elected unanimously by the legislators, who had earlier authorised party president Sonia Gandhi to name the new leader.

In true Congress style, the resolution electing Shinde was moved by Deshmukh and seconded by Maharashtra Congress Pradesh Committee chief Govindrao Adik, who also faces a sack from his post.

The election turned out to be a smooth affair with the incumbent chief minister having already indicated that he would abide by the decision of the high command.

After the CLP adopted the one-line resolution, the central observers -- Pranab Mukherjee, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Vayalar Ravi -- talked to the Congress president over phone and secured her clearance for Shinde's name, party sources said.

Later, Shinde said that Maharashtra was going through a difficult economic and social phase with communal forces getting stronger by the day.

"There is a need to come together to combat these forces," he said after being elected.

Shinde, who was the joint opposition nominee in last year's vice-presidential election, is at present a member of the Lok Sabha from Solahpur.

Independent members of the legislative assembly and legislators of smaller parties also extended their support to Shinde.

They also apprised both Shinde and the All India Congress Committee observers of their problems and received an assurance that they would be looked into.

The Independents, who met Shinde, included Ajit Ghorpade, Digambar Bagal, Vinayakrao Jadhav, Shivajirao Kardile, Babasaheb Gorthekar, Vasant Itkilwar, Dharamrao Baba Atram, and Sanjay Deshmukh.

Dashrath Bhande, Ramdas Bodke and Vasant Suryavanshi from the Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh (B) and Pappu Kalani and Hitendra Thakur from the smaller parties were also among those who met the chief minister-designate.

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