Hooda thanks Sonia for appointing him CLP leader, poll committee chief

Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda thanked Congress president Sonia Gandhi for appointing him Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader and Chairman of the State Election Committee on Wednesday.

"The party has taken the right decision. I accept it. I am thankful to Sonia ji for this," Hooda told ANI here after his appointment.

On being asked as to who will be Chief Minister if Congress comes into power, Hooda said the matter will be decided after the party gets a majority in the state polls. "Let us first win the elections, then we will decide who will be the Chief Minister," he said.

Hooda, who was said to be mulling to float a new party ahead of Assembly polls, now may drop his rebellious attitude as one of his core demands -- removal of Ashok Tanwar from the Haryana Congress chief post -- has been accepted. Former Union Minister and Rajya Sabha MP Kumari Selja has been appointed as the new president of the state party unit.

The development came a day after Hooda met a specially-formed committee of his loyalists to chalk out his future course of action.

Hooda had announced about the formation of the 33-member committee, comprising 13 Congress MLAs who are considered to be loyal to him, at a mega rally last month.

He had also struck a discordant note with the senior leadership for his criticism of the Congress' stand on the Centre's decision to abrogate Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Haryana, which has a 90-member Assembly, is scheduled to go to polls in October this year.