Cong yet to decide on CM in Rajasthan, meets Guv to stake claim

A Congress delegation met Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh Wednesday evening to stake claim to form the government in the state but the party was yet to decide who should be the chief minister.

Discussions spread over hours between AICC office bearers, sent to Jaipur from Delhi, and the newly elected MLAs failed to resolve an apparent division over picking former chief minister Ashok Gehlot or the state unit chief Rajesh Pilot.

In its first meeting of the day, the Congress Legislature Party passed a one-line resolution leaving it to Congress president Rahul Gandhi to take a final call on leader of the CLP, who will go on to become the chief minister.

The discussions with the AICC general secretary Avinash Pande and observer K C Venugopal continued till late evening, when it was apparently decided to put them on hold.

Pande, Gehlot and Pilot were part of the delegation that left for a meeting scheduled earlier with Kalyan Singh.

A Congress MLA said there could be another meeting of the Congress Legislature Party Thursday morning to resolve the deadlock.

The party won 99 seats and its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal got one seat out of the 199 for which elections were held on December 7.