Congress observers meet Himachal governor, hectic lobbying for CM's post

Congress observers met Himachal Pradesh Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar on Friday shared a list of the partys winning MLAs and sought time to formally stake claim to form the government as the party saw hectic lobbying for the chief ministers postWith the new MLAs slated to meet later in the evening Pratibha Singh Congress MP and the wife of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh indicated that she is in the running for the top job Some Congress workers raised slogans in support of Singh who is also the state party chiefFormer state chief of the party Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and outgoing legislature party leader Mukesh Agnihotri are also believed to among the frontrunners for the chief ministers postThe Congress wrested power from the BJP in Himachal Pradesh winning 40 of the 68 assembly seats The polling was held on November 12 and the results were declared ThursdayAt the MLAs meeting they are expected to pass a resolution authorising the party president to pick the legislature party leader who will be the next chief ministerThe Congress observers Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and former chief minister of Haryana Bhupinder Singh Hooda and AICC incharge for Himachal Pradesh Rajeev Shukla met the governor and submitted a list of the partys winning candidatesSenior Haryana Congress leader Karan Singh Dalal who was part of the Congress delegation which met the governor told PTI that they gave the list and told himWe have come to seek your time to present our credentials to form government in the state The party has won the assembly polls with a majorityBefore the observers went to meet the governor their vehicle was surrounded for a few minutes by the supporters of state Congress chief Pratibha Singh near a hotel The supporters raised slogans saying that the chief minister should be from the family of Virbhadra Singh Similar sloganeering was witnessed outside the Congress officeCongress leaders said the new MLAs meeting will be held in the evening and adequate time has been given to legislators to reach Shimla from faroff placesEarlier the Congress observers and Shukla met Pratibha Singh at a hotelAlso Read Congress wrests Himachal Pradesh from BJP wins 40 of 68 seats BJP gets 25Pratibha Singh 66 has indicated that she is in the running for the chief ministers post a point also made by her sonI am not in the race for the top post but my mother is one of the contenders for the post of chief minister her son and Congress MLA from Shimla Rural Vikramaditya Singh told PTIA meeting of all winning MLAs has been convened and the final decision would be taken by the high command which would be acceptable to all he addedVikramaditya Singh told reporters here that collective will of MLAs will be kept in mind and then observers will convey the same to the high commandReplying to a question Singh said Whatever the high command decides will be acceptable to all of usPost is not important for us What is important is the promises we made to people We have to fulfil them and we are committed to that he saidHe said the government will be formed in twothree daysShukla had on Thursday said the Congress was happy that it is getting an opportunity to form the government in the state and asserted that the party will do everything to fulfil the 10 guarantees made to the people of the state and would provide better governance to peopleThe newly elected Congress MLAs would meet in Shimla on Friday postelection results and decide on electing the new legislature party leader Shukla had told PTI on ThursdaySources said the MLAs are likely to pass a oneline resolution authorising Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to decide the CLP leader This has been the tradition in the Congress party they saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever