ELECTIONS '98 COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Rajasthan Congress authorises Sonia to pick CM

Newly elected Congress legislators in Rajasthan today authorised party president Sonia Gandhi to select their leader in the state.

A one-line resolution stating this was adopted at its first meeting in Jaipur this afternoon at the state party headquarters. The members met in presence of the four All-India Congress Committee observers -- Madhavrao Scindia, Ghulam Nabi Azad, R L Bhatia and Mohsina Kidwai, who arrived earlier in the day to smoothen the process of electing the new chief minister.

Earlier in the day, the process for the election of the leader of the 150-member Congress legislature party began after the arrival of four AICC leaders in Jaipur this morning. The CLP leader would be the new chief minister of the state.

The four central observers had immediately swung into action by meeting the newly elected party legislators separately, to arrive at a consensus in the election of the new chief minister. The Congress had won a massive mandate in last Wednesday's polling to the 200 member house.

All the 150 party legislators reached the state government-owned hotel, Khasa Kothi, where the AICC observers have been lodged since this morning .

In Delhi, the Pradesh Congress Committee president Shiela Dikshit has said the new leader of the legislature party would be decided by Monday evening or the day after.

Asked whether the central leadership of the party or the legislature wing would have a say on the issue, Dikshit said, ''Both always had a role in the Congress. It will not be different this time.'' But she said the leader would be elected through consensus.

UNI

Assembly Election '98

Tell us what you think of this report