Himachal Congress MLAs to hold a meet today to decide CM

After registering a win in the Himachal Assembly elections on Thursday, Congress has called a meeting of MLAs on Friday to decide on the Chief Minister. Rajeev Shukla, in-charge of the Himachal Pradesh Congress, and supervisors Bhupesh Baghel and Bhupendra Hooda will also be present at the meeting.

The MLAs were earlier expected to meet in Chandigarh, however, the party later changed its plans after it got a clear majority.

Congress on Thursday bagged 40 of the state's 68 seats. As for BJP, which scored a landslide victory in Gujarat, it managed to fetch only 25 seats in Himachal. With this, the state maintained its tradition of changing its government every five years.    

As per speculations, some of the top contenders for the CM post are -- Pratibha Singh (sitting MP from Mandi constituency), Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Congress campaign committee president), Mukesh Agnihotri (four-time MLA from Haroli seat in Una district), Thakur Kaul Singh (eight-time MLA from the Darrang Assembly seat in Mandi), and Asha Kumari (sister of Chhattisgarh minister T S Singh).

On Thursday, former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jairam Thakur tendered his resignation to the Governor at the Raj Bhavan in Shimla. He also said that the BJP lost the Himachal Pradesh polls by less than 1% vote share, and the Congress won with the least vote share in the state's history.

Also Read: Himachal Pardesh Election Result: Who will be the next CM? List of probables here