Haryan CM to be announced Thursday

A decision on the new Haryana chief minister is likely to be announced on Thursday.

Indications to this effect were available on Wednesday evening after the three central party observers for Haryana submitted their report to party chief Sonia Gandhi.

"We met Gandhi and submitted our report to her. There is only one report by us," All India Congress Committee general secretary Janardan Dwiwedi said after he and senior party leaders P M Sayeed and Ashok Gehlot met Gandhi.

Asked when the name of the next chief minister would be known, he said "very soon".

The 67-MLA strong Congress Legislature Party of Haryana met in Chandigarh on Tuesday and authorised the party to take a decision on the CLP leader.

Haryana Congress chief and former state chief minister Bhajan Lal is the frontrunner for the post.

Others in the fray include senior party leaders B S Hooda, MP, Union Minister of State Kumari Selja, Pradesh Congress Committee chief Randeep Surjewala and his father former PCC chief S S Surjewala, former PCC chief Birender Singh and party MLA and industrialist O P Jindal.

While Selja belongs to Dalit community, Jindal from the Vaishya community, Lal is a Brahmin, the other contenders -- Surjewala, Birender Singh and Hooda -- belong to the dominant Jat community.