HEADLINES QUOTE UNQUOTE YEH HAI INDIA PIC OF THE DAY POLL ARCHIVES FEEDBACK SEARCH REDIFF
NEWSLINKS US EDITION NEWS DEAR REDIFF THE STATES ARCHIVES Special Offer To your parents' health
Punjab Governor J F R Jacob on Tuesday invited Congress Legislature Party leader Amarinder Singh to form the government.
The Governor's invitation follows Singh's election as the Congress Legislature Party leader earlier in the day.
Singh would be sworn in at 1130 hours on Wednesday, Raj Bhawan sources said in Chandigarh.
Earlier, a delegation of Congress leaders met the Governor and handed over a letter from AICC treasurer Moti Lal Vora informing him that the CLP has elected Amarinder Singh as its leader.
Singh was elected after about an over three hour one-to-one closed door meeting of the party's central observers with the newly elected MLAs, including Singh and former chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, who had headed the last Congress government in the state in 1996-97.
Though the 62 legislators were unanimous in proposing Singh's name, the four central observers - party treasurer Moti Lal Vora, general secretary Ambika Soni, secretary Hari Prasad and CWC member Ahmed Patel decided to seek the opinion of each MLA individually.
After the one-to-one meeting ended, Patel told reporters the MLAs 'unanimously elected' Singh as CLP leader.
Bhattal, who had during the campaigning staked her claim for chief ministership, told reporters she was happy at the outcome.
PTI
