The Congress on Tuesday announced that its Telangana state unit chief, A Revanth Reddy, will be the new chief minister of the state. He will take the oath of office on Thursday.
Of the five states that went to the polls, Congress won the majority in Telangana.
The Zoram Peoples Movement (ZPM) won in Mizoram. Its leader Lalduhoma, a 74-year-old former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, is likely to take oath on December 8.
There was no clarity on who the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may pick as chief ministers in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the three Hindi heartland states where it secured a majority.
Top BJP leaders Amit Shah and J P Nadda consulted with state in-charges on Tuesday.
In Jaipur, former Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje continued to meet her loyalists among the party’s winning candidates.
In Bhopal on Tuesday, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan issued a video statement to say that he had not been a contender for the CM’s chair in the past, nor is he today.
“Tomorrow (on Wednesday), I am going to Chhindwara, where we failed to win any of the seven seats (in the district). I have resolved that the BJP should win all 29 Lok Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh and Narendra Modi will become the country’s Prime Minister (again),” Chouhan, whom many have credited for leading the party to victory on the back of his government’s Ladli Behna scheme, said.
In 2019, Chhindwara elected Nakul Nath, son of Congress state unit chief Kamal Nath. It was the only seat that the BJP lost.
At a meeting in Jaipur, the Congress state unit entrusted the party’s central leadership to pick the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly.
After the meeting, former deputy CM Sachin Pilot, said, “Youths should be given the reins so that we can take the young generation into confidence.”
According to party sources, the Congress high command has asked its MP state unit chief Kamal Nath to quit.
As for Telangana, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said in the National Capital that the party has consulted senior leaders, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and factored in the report of its observers to decide on Revanth Reddy as leader of the Congress Legislature Party.
Party observers to Telangana, Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar also separately met former Telangana PCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy in Delhi, who is seeking a key position in the new Congress government in the state.
In Rajasthan, sources from the Raje camp claimed that nearly 50 MLAs have met her at her residence since Monday while BJP state in-charge Arun Singh said the BJP’s Parliamentary Board will take a decision on the CM’s face.